Archive of Our Own

Scott was dead on his feet and all he wanted was to fall onto his bed and sleep for a week, or however long it took to get back to the Nexus. The thing was, he was the Pathfinder and that title didn't just mean the fun stuff, like activating monoliths and giving people hope that they hadn't all made the biggest mistake of their lives; it also meant dealing with a certain amount of bureaucracy. As such, when the Tempest prepared to leave orbit after nearly a month of hunting for and then activating the latest planet’s vault, Scott didn't need SAM to tell him that there were a load of Very Urgent Emails waiting to be dealt with. There were always a load of Very Urgent Emails to be dealt with. He knew from experience that if he didn't at least acknowledge receipt of the Very Urgent Emails then by the time he woke up he'd be inundated with even more emails demanding to know why he hadn't read the first lot of Very Urgent Emails as well as a whole new batch of emails.

So with a lingering and wistful look towards his bed, Scott straightened his shoulders and marched across the room to his email terminal to get started. Quickly scanning the page, he sighed; there were seven from Tann alone.

"SAM, do you think there's any chance that Director Tann will leave me the hell alone if I punch him in his smug face the next time I see him?" Scott mused aloud.

I believe that there is a chance that Director Tann will have you thrown in the brig if you punch him the next time you see him.

Scott snorted at SAM's increasingly dry delivery. Other people may think that it was just the way an AI spoke but SAM lived inside Scott's head and he could tell the difference between SAM when they'd first been connected and SAM now.  

"Nah! He wouldn't keep me around where people could see me and be reminded of the time he took a fist to the face," Scott replied as he skimmed another demand for his attention. "He'd exile me instead and then I’d go to Kadara where they'd build a statue in my honour."

You appear to have overestimated the Kadaran exiles' opinion of you.

"You appear to have underestimated the Kadaran exiles' hatred of Tann," Scott shot back.

He sent an acknowledgment of receipt in reply to one of Addison's less-bitchy-than-normal-but-still-pretty-bitchy messages about resupplying the outpost on Elaaden. Then he couldn't help but smile when he saw that the next email was from Gil; no doubt another rambling insight into how the engineer's mind worked on next to no sleep. The smile grew into a grin when he realised that this wasn't just a rambling email, it was another of Gil's poems.

Scott, I do not understand your reaction to these poems from Mr Brodie, SAM said. You think that they are terrible yet you enjoy receiving them. It is confusing.

"I enjoy them because they are so terrible," Scott tried to explain. "Listen to this: 'Do right by the Krogan or else you'll get broken. So take the time to become friends, bonding with drinks and weap-ens. And a few very loud explosions'.  That's awful. It's so bad that it becomes funny."

So...you are making fun of Mr Brodie's attempts at poetry. Sam sounded uncertain.

"Oh, Gil knows how bad the poems are. That's why he sends them to me; so that somebody else can appreciate the awfulness of them too," Scott assured the AI.

Sam was quiet for a moment as it worked through that statement. He is making fun of himself in order to make you happy.

"Something like that," Scott replied and opened up the next email; this one from Evfra. "Although I'm not sure he's specifically doing it to cheer me up, SAM; he's just sharing the fun."

I disagree, Scott. He is not sharing this poetry with any other member of the crew. Also, the timing is curious. You received the first poem when you were still feeling overwhelmed and unsure of your abilities as a Pathfinder. The second, when you were angry about Sloane Kelly's treatment of the exiles on Kadara. This new poem, you received after an arduous mission during which you had to make some extremely difficult decisions. I believe that Mr Brodie is indeed sending them to 'cheer you up' when he perceives that you need that.

"Huh!" Scott paused in his perusal of the latest email to think that over.

Gil definitely tended to use humour to deflect situations so, now that he thought of it, Scott could easily see the man using humour to stealthily comfort one of his crewmates; to comfort Scott.

"Sneaky bastard," Scott murmured with a small smile.

He ignored the strange feeling that had suddenly appeared in his stomach and turned his attention back to the waiting correspondence.

It took another hour but, finally, Scott reached the end of the emails. The final one was from Lexi and Scott couldn't help but give a sigh of relief as he clicked on it; he was almost done. Lexi's email was much as expected; mother hen type fussing disguised as a lecture from his doctor. This one concerned relieving stress and Scott snorted softly as he skimmed over her list of suggestions; journaling? Crochet? He shook his head and shut the terminal down before staggering to the bed and face planting on it with a happy groan. He was asleep before he even finished asking SAM to turn off the lights.

The groan Scott gave upon waking up was less happy as his muscles protested any movement. Unsurprising, given the amount of running around and being shot at he'd done the previous day...or was it the day before that? He wasn't sure how long he'd slept for.

You were asleep for twelve hours, fourteen minutes and thirty eight seconds, Scott.

"Thanks, SAM," Scott said. Or least he tried to, what actually came out was a low grunt but he liked to think that SAM appreciated the attempt to be verbal.

Rubbing the grit from his eyes, Scott pushed himself out of bed and barely remembered to grab some clean clothes and a towel before he staggered out of his room and into the bathroom. He heard a couple of chuckles as he passed the kitchen but he didn't bother to look at who it was, the crew were more than used to Scott's morning zombie act before he had a shower and a coffee. It clearly still amused them though.

Kallo had long ago told Scott the trick to overriding his allotted amount of hot water in the shower but, besides knowing that he'd feel guilty for having longer showers then the rest of the crew, Scott was never able to remember exactly what the trick was until he'd woken up enough for his brain to work normally and that was usually after he'd finished his shower. Today he was already towelling off roughly when he remembered the correct order to turn the cold and hot water taps that Kallo had taught him. With a shrug, he pulled on his clothes and left the bathroom. His nostrils were immediately assaulted with the scent of freshly brewed coffee and he marched into the tiny kitchen, barely even registering who handed him the mug of steaming black goodness until he'd drunk half of it.

 "I could kiss you right now," Scott said reverently and Liam threw his head back, laughing.

"You are so easy, Ryder," Liam said. "Seriously, a decent cup of coffee and you're anyone's. You're lucky that you're not my type; I could really take advantage of this."

"He's my type. Can I take advantage of it?" Peebee piped up from where she was perched on the kitchen counter.

Scott shook his head, beginning to feel human again. "You didn't make the coffee."

He turned back to Liam, a quip ready but stopped and frowned slightly at the weird look that the other man was giving Peebee. Peebee simply smirked back at Liam with a raised eyebrow. Scott's gaze dropped to Liam's neck where a small bruise just about poked out over the edge of his collar and then back up to take in the fact that when Peebee sat on the counter it brought her to perfect kissing height for a tall man. He blinked a few times, unsure of what to do with this information, but was saved from having to do anything when Liam shook himself free of the staring contest he and Peebee had been having. He picked up the coffee pot, topped up Scott's coffee before clapping Scott on the back, promising to meet with him later for a training session, and leaving the small room. Peebee immediately hopped off the counter and followed Liam, shooting Scott a saucy wink over her shoulder.

Scott stayed where he was for a moment then followed them down the corridor and into the cargo bay. He didn’t know what he expected to find but Liam merely disappeared into the armoury and he could hear Peebee climbing the ladder to the floor above before her light footsteps carried her out of the cargo bay entirely.

"Hey, Scott. Everything okay?" Gil asked, inspecting the repairs he'd made to the Nomad.

"I think Liam and Peebee are sleeping together," Scott said and then winced, he hadn't meant to blurt out his thoughts like that.

Gil gave Scott a look that could almost be called fond and patted him on the arm. "Of course they're sleeping together. Although I don't think much actual sleeping is going on; that Peebee is a minx."

Scott frowned. "Am I the last to know?"

"No," Gil assured him. "Vetra knows because...well, she always knows everything. I don't think Drack cares what any of us do so it's hard to tell if he knows or not. But apart from that everyone else is clueless."

With a slow nod, Scott studied the contents of the mug he was still holding. He wasn't sure what he should do about this; or even if he should do anything about this. His Alliance training instinctively told him that team members pairing up was a bad idea and that he should put a stop to it now because if things didn't go well with the couple then that could affect the rest of the team. But they weren't Alliance. They weren't even in the Milky Way anymore and all the rules were out of the window. Also, Scott had been propositioned by Peebee himself when she first arrived on the Tempest; he knew that she was only looking for some no-strings fun and he got the impression that Liam was a no-strings kind of guy. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing to let the team members blow off steam in this way if they wanted to. He sighed; it was stuff like this that made being in charge suck. He was never supposed to be a leader; he didn't know how to handle people.

"Your first mug of the day?"

Scott startled and looked up at Gil, who was nodding towards Scott's coffee.

"You've been staring at that drink for a while now," Gil continued. "Not functioning at normal speed yet?"

Scott gave an amused huff. "Not quite."

Gil grinned. "My question is; what happens if we're attacked before you've had that first cup of coffee?"

"Then I let my training and muscle memory dominate and take my very bad mood out on whoever's attacked us," Scott replied with a smirk and Gil chuckled.

"Speaking from experience?"

"It has happened once or twice," Scott confirmed. "My commanding officer used to deliberately set some of our drills for when I just woke up. He said he did it so I could put the fear of God into the new recruits."

Gil gave a full bellied laugh at that and Scott felt inordinately pleased with himself; it was kind of like returning the favour, now that he'd figured out what Gil had been doing with the poems.

Scott drained the last of the coffee from the mug and, saying goodbye to Gil, headed back to his quarters to start on a plan of action for the day.

"By the way, Lexi's looking for you," Gil shouted after him and Scott waved a hand at him in acknowledgment before promptly forgetting it as soon as he started working.

"Lexi's looking for you, kid," Drack said to him later that day when they were having one of their weapons cleaning sessions. "She seems a little mad; maybe you should just avoid her until she's forgiven you."

Scott frowned. "But I haven't done anything to be forgiven for."

"Are you sure about that?" Drack asked.

He ran through the past couple of days in his mind and Scott couldn't remember doing anything that might piss off their resident doctor, but it wouldn't be the first time he'd done something wrong without realising it.

"Not absolutely sure," he admitted slowly.

Drack nodded sagely. "In that case, I haven't seen you."

Obviously he couldn't avoid Lexi all day, it was a very small ship and the crew always made time to eat dinner together if they were having one of their quieter days. But Scott got around that by managing to quickly squeeze himself into the seat between Suvi and Cora when he spotted Lexi head towards him. He enthusiastically joined in with their conversation about which Andromeda flora would be suitable for planting near crops versus ones which were purely ornamental and watched out of the corner of his eye as Lexi frowned at him before taking a seat besides Gil and Vetra. Luck was then on his side because it was Lexi and Cora's turn to clean up after dinner, which meant that Scott could sneak away to go and watch a vid with Liam, Jaal, Vetra and Suvi.

He'd figure out what was up with Lexi tomorrow.

****

"I just don't get why he sounded like Suvi when he was supposed to sound like Reyes," Scott said and Liam shook his head.

The two men had just finished a training session in the ship's makeshift gym area and were still discussing the vid from the night before as they grabbed showers.

"He's immortal," Liam replied, stealing some of Cora's shampoo as he always did. "He's lived so long and in so many different places that his accent's bound to have changed."

"I suppose," Scott wasn't convinced by that explanation but who was he to argue against a centuries-old 'classic'. "The music was good though."

Liam grinned. "Oh yeah, the music was really good. I think that Suvi said that she was going to make an audio file of it from the vid; I'll ask her to make copies for us too."

Scott was definitely going to prod Suvi into doing that. It was awesome to have his own music system in his room but he was getting fed up of listening to the same six songs. He'd been meaning to ask Vetra where he could get some more but that always fell by the wayside when something important turned up.

He and Liam were still discussing the vid when they left the bathroom. Scott was towelling his hair as he walked and almost jumped out of his skin when he looked up from under the towel to find Lexi standing inches away from him. Liam took one look at the expression on Lexi's face and apparently decided to get the hell out of there.

"I've just remembered. I've got to talk to...uh...Vetra, about...a thing. Later, Ryder." Liam said before hightailing it down the corridor.

Traitor, Scott thought as he glared at Liam's quickly retreating back.

"You've been avoiding me, Pathfinder," Lexi said in a low voice that wasn't scary in the slightest. Really.

"What? No!" Scott tried to deny it. "That would be impossible on a ship this size, not to mention ridiculous."

Lexi just stared at him, unblinking.

"Well, I'm glad we've got that sorted out. Good talk!" Scott stepped around her and into his quarters as soon as the door opened. The relief he felt stopped suddenly when he realised that Lexi had followed him into the room.

"Have I ever given you the impression that I'm stupid, Scott?" Lexi asked.

Scott sighed. "Alright, I was avoiding you. But only because I don't know what I've done to make you mad at me."

"Did you read the email I sent you?" Lexi asked and Scott blinked at the abrupt change in conversation.

"The one about hobbies? Yeah, I read it when I got back from...wait! That's why you're mad at me?" Scott gave her an incredulous look. "I thought it was over something important."

Lexi closed her eyes and looked as if she was battling a sudden headache. "Firstly, I am...slightly aggravated because you ignored my correspondence and then avoided talking to me for an entire day. I am your physician, Scott, and this childish behaviour is stopping me from doing my job."

She pinned him with a look that reminded Scott of his mother when he and Sara had been particularly naughty.

"Secondly, taking up a hobby is important; especially for you," Lexi continued. "You have the weight of the Initiative on your shoulders. Even the Turian Pathfinder looks to you and I have no doubt that the other pathfinders will as well, once we find them. You need to take regular breaks to relax otherwise you're going to burn out."

"Okay, I am sorry for hiding from you. You're right; I was impeding your job. It won't happen again" Scott told her and manfully didn't comment on her snort of disbelief. "And I appreciate you being so concerned about me but I do take time to relax. I go to Liam's movie nights and I spend time in the gym..."

"Training in the gym isn't relaxing, Scott," Lexi interrupted. "It's the exact opposite, in fact. And as for the movie nights...can you honestly tell me that SAM isn't still working in your head while you're watching the vid? Passing along messages and information about the ship or our next destination."

Scott couldn't tell her that. SAM did keep him updated during movie nights. Just the night before, SAM had given him run down on the latest information from the various outposts during the quieter parts of the vid.

"Relaxing means no work," Lexi said. "For either one of you inside that head."

You wish me to power down during these sessions, Dr T'Perro? SAM asked.

"Just for an hour every day," Lexi told him.

Scott shook his head. "Every day? I can't spare that."

"You can," Lexi insisted. "And you will. Starting now. I've checked and your schedule is clear for the next three hours. This will only take up one of those hours."

"I was going to..."

"I have taken the liberty of emailing some tutorial vids to your terminal," Lexi talked right over Scott's protests and then handed Scott a bag that he hadn't even noticed her holding. "Here is everything you need for now, I'll get more for you when we next land somewhere with merchants."

Scott opened the bag and stared at the big ball of blue wool and a couple of thin sticks.

"Knitting? That's what you want me to do?" he asked in disbelief. "No way. I'll try this hobby thing but I'll do one of the other activities. Reading was on there, right? Or…painting?"

Lexi gave him an evil smile that had him taking a step back from her. "You had your chance to pick a hobby but you didn't. So I'm choosing one for you. I want a dishcloth from you by the end of the week. It's just a square so that should be easy enough."

"Lexi..." Scott tried but the doctor gave him another one of those looks and his protest dried up.

Seeing that he'd given in, Lexi smiled at Scott again before leaving the room.

"What the hell is a dishcloth?" Scott asked aloud as he walked to his terminal and queued up the first of those vids Lexi had mentioned.

Maybe if he got this done quickly then he'd be able to switch to one of the other activities, or even convince Lexi that he actually didn't need a hobby at all, that he was just fine as he was.

A 'dishcloth' appears to be a small piece of fabric used for cleaning tableware after a meal has been eaten, SAM informed him. They were a common household item before sonic cleaners became available.

Scott sighed. "So she wants me to make something that's ultimately useless."

It is not useless if the very act of you making it achieves a goal; in this case, relieving stress.

"I'm not stressed," Scott complained but he knew that wasn't true.

Of course he was stressed; his dad was dead, his twin sister was in a coma, he'd had the job of making an inhospitable galaxy hospitable again shoved upon him with the knowledge that if he failed, thousands of people would die. He just didn't think that ignoring his tasks for a certain amount of time was going to help; if anything, it could make things worse because more work would pile up during the time he was ignoring it.

"Where did she even find wool so quickly? She only picked it to punish me," Scott muttered to himself as he emptied the contents of the bag onto his desk, made himself comfortable on his chair and hit play on the vid.

Knitting Session One:

"Fuck!" Scott yelled as one of the needles in his grip slipped and stabbed into the meaty part of his palm. "Relieving stress, my ass!"

It was impossible. It was clearly impossible. His stitches kept unravelling and wouldn't stay on the needles, holding the needles in the correct positions felt unnatural and unwieldy and he. Just. Kept. Stabbing. Himself.

He yanked all of the wool off the needle, took a deep breath and restarted the vid.

"Dammit!" He cursed as the needle slipped again. "Okay, that's blood. Stupid fucking pointy needles! Why do they need to be this pointy and sharp?"

There was no answer from SAM. Instead, there was silence in Scott's head for the first time since he woke up in SAM node after Habitat 7. He refused to admit that it felt nice.

Knitting Session Three:

"Okay, how the hell has that happened?"

Scott stared at the piece of knitting in his hand. In his last session, he'd finally figured out the trick of making the stitches stay on the needle and now he had actually managed to knit a couple of inches worth of the required dishcloth. But it was looking less like a square and more like a trapezoid. He somehow had more stitches on the needle than he'd started out with.

"Dammit!" He cursed as he pulled the wool from the needles and started to unravel what he'd done.

Knitting Session Six:

The music that Suvi had pulled from Liam's vid was playing on Scott's music system while Scott sat on the bed, propped up by his pillows. The clack of the needles in his hands, once irritating, had now become rather soothing. The noise reminded him of his childhood when his grandmother used to knit sweaters for Scott and Sara, insisting that the Citadel was far too cold for children to run around without proper warm clothing. It was something that he’d forgotten all about that until he’d started this task and idly wondered if Lexi had found out somehow. He quickly dismissed the thought, he was pretty sure that the fact his grandmother used to knit wouldn't be listed in any of his files. Still, it was a nice memory to keep hold of.

He finished another row and critically eyed the dishcloth. This attempt was definitely more square in shape and, even though he'd made numerous mistakes which were scattered throughout the work, Scott thought that it was a pretty decent first effort.

He turned the cloth around and started the next row. A small beep went off on his terminal to signal that the hour was up but Scott ignored it; he just wanted to finish this row and enjoy the last moment of quiet before he told SAM to come back online and he threw himself back into the life of a Pathfinder.

"Dammit!" He cursed, pausing in the middle of the row at the sudden realisation of what he'd just thought; Lexi had been right all along. “Oh, she’s going to become impossible.”

***

The week was up and Scott had a dishcloth burning a hole in his pocket. He checked that the crew were all busy with other tasks before he made his way to the med bay.

Lexi blinked in surprise when Scott walked in the door. "I thought I was going to have to hunt you down."

"You know me," Scott smirked at her. "I like to keep everyone on their toes."

"Do you have something for me?" Lexi asked with a roll of her eyes at Scott's usual attitude.

Suddenly feeling inexplicably nervous, Scott pulled the cloth from the pocket of his hoodie and handed it to her. For the second time in as many minutes, Lexi looked surprised. She turned the cloth over in her hands, inspecting it and then gave Scott a genuinely warm smile.

"This is really good, Scott."

Scott blushed a little at the praise. It was just a little useless square of material but it was something that he'd made himself and he was actually kind of proud of it.

"How do you feel?" Lexi asked him and Scott bit back the automatic answer of 'fine' to actually consider it.

"I feel good," he admitted with a small grimace. "You were right. Having SAM power down every now and then helps. I didn't realise how much was going on in my head until it became just my own again."

 "You should know by now that I'm always right," Lexi said, her eyes twinkling.

Scott suddenly remembered why he'd flirted with her so much when he’d first woken from cryo. But she was clearly gone on Drack and, while Scott could still appreciate her attractiveness, he didn't think of her in a romantic sense anymore.

"Did the knitting help you relax?" Lexi was asking as she took notes. "Or was it just the act of powering SAM down?"

"The knitting definitely helped," Scott said, adding wryly. "Once I stopped stabbing myself, anyway. I liked being able to fall into the repetitiveness of it; it was...calming, I guess."

"Good, good." Lexi nodded. "So you're going to keep it up?"

"Do I have a choice?" Scott asked.

She smirked. "Not really."

He chuckled. "One of the vids you sent me is for a scarf. I thought I might try that; it should be easy enough, it’s like the dishcloth but I just keep going passed it being a square. And a warm scarf will come in handy on trips to Voeld. But you have to keep your word and get me some more wool."

"I can do that," she said. "It might not be the same colour though."

Scott shrugged. He didn't really mind; it wasn't as though he was particularly fashion conscious.

"And I'm still going to be checking on your progress once a week to make sure that you don't fall into bad habits again," Lexi warned him and Scott smiled.

"Bad habits? Me? I'm almost offended." He clutched at his chest in mock pain and laughed when Lexi ordered him to get out of her sight.

"Enjoy your dishcloth," he told her as he left the room and noted the smile she gave at that.

***

Scott didn't need Lexi to check up on him, he really did feel loads better after an hour knitting here and there. SAM even claimed that powering down regularly helped him to recharge so that was another good reason to do it. The only bad part, really, was hiding his new hobby from the rest of the crew. Scott knew that as soon as they found out that he'd taken up knitting, and was enjoying it, he'd never hear the end of their teasing. Liam would clearly be the worst but Scott could imagine the mocking he’d take from the rest of them too. In fact the only crewmembers that Scott didn't think would make fun of him were Jaal and Kallo.

By an unspoken agreement, Scott and Lexi had kept quiet on exactly what Scott was up to during that one hour a day he disappeared into his quarters with a 'do not disturb' order sent to the rest of the ship. But obviously the crew immediately wanted to know what was going on. Peebee was especially curious and one day Scott had to physically restrain her from running into his quarters to search it for clues. Then, for some odd reason, a rumour began to circulate that Scott was taking the hour to meditate and neither Scott or Lexi disputed it. In fact, Scott was pretty sure that the rumour had actually been started by Lexi, despite her claims to the contrary. He'd have to make her a thank you gift once he'd finished his scarf.

The scarf itself was coming along pretty well. He'd made some mistakes and had to redo some parts but by the time they arrived at the Nexus, he had just passed the amount of rows that he’d used on the dishcloth and was now officially making a scarf. He was running low on yarn though so he hoped that Lexi was able to keep up her end of the bargain.

As always, visiting the Nexus was exhausting. There was the usual arguing with Tann and the other section heads about how things should run and with them demanding explanations for Scott's decisions so far. Next he had to make nice with the various members of the Angaran delegation because, God knows, they deserved a better experience of the visitors from the Milky Way than Tann or Addison. Then there was the general problem solving; when they'd made that first visit to the mostly powered down station, Scott had learned that the problems of the people living and working on the Nexus usually fell on deaf ears. He'd made it his mission to put a stop to that and helped out wherever he could. Word had quickly spread and now, every time they docked at the Nexus, Scott was constantly stopped by people asking for his help.

He was battling a small headache by the time he managed to escape onto the Tempest, their third day in dock. The door hissed shut behind him and he leaned back against it with a sigh of relief.

"You could just tell them 'no', you know."

Scott opened his eyes and looked to where Gil was sat on top of some crates, watching him with concern.

"That would make me no better than the Nexus chiefs," Scott replied.

"You're kidding me, right?" Gil asked in a disbelieving tone. "After everything you've done since you got here, everyone knows that you're a hundred times better than what they had before. I was here before you arrived, don't forget, I remember what it was like and trust me when I say that you've already turned things around. You've found the Turian Ark and made worlds actually viable for outposts. They don't need you trying to...I don't know...track down a rogue power outage for them; there are already people whose job it is to do that."

"I'm pretty sure that I stole the person whose job it was to do that and made him my chief engineer," Scott pointed out with a smile.

Gil waved a hand in the air. "Alright, bad example. But my point is the same. If you keep doing these small things, they will never do the small things for themselves and you'll be too tired to do the big things properly."

Gil's statement was very close to something that Scott had already been thinking. He'd hoped by now that his example would encourage people to share their problems and help each other out, especially when he wasn't on the station.

"And for the record," Gil continued. "By the time anyone realised there was a power outage on the station, I'd already fixed it. No Pathfinder needed."

With a snort, Scott pushed himself off the door and walked over to Gil. "Of course not. I'm surprised you need a Pathfinder now, to be honest."

"Who said I needed you?" Gil snarked at him. "I'm fairly sure that I could fix one of those vaults, it's just a bit of hand waving, isn't it?"

Scott laughed for the first time since they'd arrived at the Nexus. "Definitely, that's all it is. Don't tell anyone though; I've got a reputation to maintain."

Gil grinned. "Your secret's safe with me, Pathfinder. Now go and do your meditating thing before you collapse."

"Huh?" Scott was tired enough to be confused by that for a second but then he remembered the rumour. "Right, yes. I'll go and do that."

He pretended not to notice the way that Gil's eyes had narrowed at him suddenly, and mentally cursed at himself for tripping up in front of a talented poker player with a gift for reading people like a book. He just had to hope that Gil wouldn't mention his slip-up to the rest of the crew, he didn't want to have to wrestle Peebee away from his door again.

He did take the spirit of Gil's advice though and took an hour to unwind with his knitting once he got back to his quarters. He made a mental note to check the merchants himself for yarn the next day, just in case Lexi came up empty; the extra would always come in handy anyway.

***

They ended up staying on the Nexus for a little over a week and Scott was relieved when they finally took off, headed to Aya this time. He didn't think that he'd ever feel at home on the Nexus. Even when he was finished Pathfinding, he thought that he'd prefer to settle down on one of the outposts instead.

Along with his pleasure at escaping the Nexus came a big dose of guilt because he was also leaving Sara behind. He couldn't wait until she was finally awake and able to escape with him.

"Tell me about her," Vetra said suddenly and Scott jumped, he hadn't realised anyone else was in the cargo bay. "You're thinking about your sister, right?"

"How did you know that?" Scott asked and Vetra chuckled.

"As Gil would say; you have a tell, my friend."

Gil stuck his head out of engineering. "Did I hear my name being mentioned?"

Scott looked at him incredulously. "You heard us from all the way in there?"

"I was only just inside the door; you can hear everything from there," Gil admitted, climbing down to the bottom level and beginning to search through some crates. "So, why were you taking my name in vain?"

"I was telling the Pathfinder that he has a tell," Vetra explained.

Gil studied Scott for a moment. "He has a lot of tells, which one was this?"

"I do not have a lot of tells," Scott protested.

Vetra ignored him and spoke to Gil. "He was brooding over his sister."

"Oh!" Gil nodded. "That one."

"What one?" Scott was getting frustrated by this whole conversation.

"You rub your arm," Vetra and Gil said simultaneously before Gil rushed over to her so that they could high five each other.

"It's right where your tattoo is," Gil explained.

Vetra nodded. "I'm guessing the tattoo has something to do with Sara?"

Scott stared down at where he had indeed been rubbing the inside of his arm, just below the crease for the elbow. "She has a matching tattoo in the same place, we got them when we turned eighteen. I really do that every time?"

"Yep. And when you're considering doing something crazy, you tug on your ear," Vetra informed him.

"He does," Gil agreed, walking back to the crates. "And when he's annoyed but trying to hide it, he rolls his shoulders."

"Alright, I get it!" Scott interrupted them. "I'm never playing poker with either one of you."

Gil made a pouty face. "Aww, come on! I'll let you use SAM..."

Vetra snorted. "Back to my original point...tell us about your sister. I mean, she's going to be joining the crew when she wakes up, right?"

"Yeah, she will." Scott nodded. "I don't really know where to start. Umm...she's smart, like ridiculously smart. "

"Suvi-smart?" Vetra asked, her head tilting slightly with interest.

"Yes. Actually, I can imagine Sara and Suvi falling into their own little world of geek-speak all the time." Scott smiled as he thought about it. "I'm more worried about how she'll get along with Peebee, to be honest. Sara's specialty is studying alien technology so she'll love all the remtech but she's been trained to be more by the book whereas Peebee..."

"Peebee goes with her gut," Gil supplied with a laugh over the sound of him rummaging around in another crate. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure 'pull the killer robot apart until you can figure out how to make it work for you' wouldn't be in any type of formal training."

Scott laughed too because that was very true, although he couldn't deny how helpful Zap was in a firefight.

Gil finally pulled his head out of the crate, with an 'aha!', brandishing something that looked like a cross between a wrench and a hammer. Scott expected him to head back to engineering now that he'd found what he'd been looking for, but instead Gil leaned against the pile of crates he'd been investigating and looked at Scott as expectantly as Vetra was. Apparently, it was still Ryder story time.

"What else can I tell you?" Scott tried to think of something else. "Oh! No matter what she tells you, don't let her cook.  She's terrible at it and mom had to make her promise not to go near the oven in our old apartment on the Citadel. This one time, she decided that she was going to make dinner for the family and ended up setting fire to the kitchen, the entire section had to be evacuated. She'd only been trying to grill some chicken for a salad."

Vetra looked a little afraid. "She almost burned down your apartment trying to make a salad? Yeah, she's not allowed anywhere near the galley. In fact, I'm going to write that on Cora's list of rules as soon as I leave here."

Out of the corner of his eye Scott noticed Gil suddenly start rubbing his hands together vigorously before blowing on them. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Gil blinked at him. "Oh! Yeah. Just...space, you know?"

Scott did know. Being out in space definitely gave an added chill to the ship but he didn't think it was cold enough to cause the light shivers that Gil seemed to be experiencing.

"You squishy humans can be so delicate," Vetra said. "And Gil's even more delicate than most."

Gil gave Vetra the finger while she chuckled. "I just get cold easily. It doesn't mean that I'm fucking delicate. And I'll be fine in about an hour, it just gets chilly during this part of the aircon cycle. Anyway, now you've mentioned food, I'm so hungry that I’d even eat a burnt salad. Whose turn is it to cook today?"

"Drack's, I think," Scott said and Gil perked up considerably.

Drack was definitely the best cook out of them all. He'd picked up a few tricks over his very long lifetime and could make even nutritional paste (kept shoved to the back of the cupboard and to be used in hunger emergencies only) taste appetising. 

Gil shoved himself off the crates. "I think I'm going to check if he's started yet."

‘And badger him by trying to get sneak tastes of whatever was being cooked, no doubt’, Scott thought as he watched Gil scamper across the cargo bay towards the crew quarters, his newly discovered hammerwrench sticking out of his back pocket.

He rolled his eyes at the speed with which Gil left. "He forgot to eat again yesterday, didn't he?"

"Probably," Vetra agreed. "You know how he gets when he gets caught up in some new scheme to make the ship run more efficiently."

Scott did; Gil could be as bad as Suvi was when she got her hands on new Heleus plant species or space rocks.

"We need to keep a closer eye on him," he said. "SAM?"

I will monitor the security feeds to make sure that he is eating and sleeping regularly, the same way you have asked me to monitor Dr Anwar.

"Good. Keep me updated, SAM."

Vetra nodded approvingly and patted Scott's arm as she made a move to leave too. "Thanks for telling us about Sara, Ryder."

Scott smiled after her. He should be thanking her; it was nice to talk about his sister like that instead of, as Vetra had said earlier, brooding over her not being around. It warmed something in him that his crew just took it as a given that Sara was definitely going to wake up and then join their new little family. He couldn't help but feel that for all the shitty luck he'd had since waking in Heleus, he'd actually been really lucky when it came to his crew.

***

Unsurprisingly, Lexi was true to her word and Scott returned to his quarters to find a giant bag full of squishy yarn of all different colours, as well as a bunch of new needles in different sizes (some of which came in a group and were pointy on both ends. Scott immediately put those monstrosities in the back of his drawer where he hoped to never see them again). He was pleased to see that Lexi had managed to get some of the same vivid blue colour he was already using so he grabbed a ball of that and then a thought hit him. Why didn’t he make the scarf for Gil? Yes, it would be nice for Scott to have a scarf to take to Voeld but his suit was pretty good at keeping him warm down there and Gil clearly got very cold a few times a day if he was that affected by the aircon cycle.

Decision made, Scott inspected the bag of yarn again. Gil was mostly seen in his orange uniform but Scott had seen other bits of the engineer’s wardrobe on various movie or games nights and knew that his taste ran to bright, almost garish, patterned shirts. So Scott also grabbed a ball of a blindingly bright yellow, deciding to try thick stripes of colour on the scarf. He was pretty sure one of the vids was about using more than one colour yarn so maybe it was time to step it up a level.

It was a little tricky to change to a different ball of yarn without stretching the stitches of the previous row too far but with multiple viewings of the tutorial and only a little more swearing, Scott managed to get a handle on it.

"Are you going to add a fringe to the ends?" Lexi asked during her weekly inspection a couple of months later.

Scott frowned. He hadn't planned on that but... "Do you think it needs that?"

Lexi draped the scarf around Scott's neck, mindful of the needle still holding stitches, and eyed him critically.

"I think you should. It will add a little something," she decided. "The scarf is looks good, Scott, but those colours are awfully bright.

"Don't wear the scarf on a stealth mission, gotcha," Scott snarked and Lexi sent him a glare but there wasn't any heat behind it.

Now that the scarf was almost done, Scott’s thoughts had turned to actually giving it to Gil. He knew that he’d made the right decision because, now that he'd noticed, he couldn't stop paying attention to the fact that Gil got too cold during certain parts of the air cycle in the Tempest. And as the scarf grew, he could feel how warm it would be to wear and knew that it would help the poor guy out. He just didn’t know how to actually gift it to him.

"Say I wanted to give the scarf to someone else without them knowing it was from me, how do you think I should go about that?" Scott asked Lexi because she usually had good ideas and it wasn't as if she wouldn't notice if Gil was suddenly wearing the scarf instead of Scott.

She gave him a knowing look. "You still don't want anyone to know about the knitting, do you?"

"Can you imagine their reaction to it?" Scott replied and Lexi chuckled.

"You know that they're going to find out some day. Don't you just want to get it over with?"

"But there won't be any 'over with'," Scott pointed out. "They'll just keep going. Peebee will come up with some sort of knitting based nickname and I'll be stuck with it forever, along with Liam's bad jokes and Vetra's smirking."

"Alright," Lexi said in acknowledgement that Scott was probably right. "You could just tell them that you bought the scarf. Who are you giving it to anyway?"

"Gil," Scott told her and watched as her expression flitted from surprise to thoughtful and landing on sly, for some unknown reason. "I don't think anyone will believe that I bought this; it's definitely not good enough for someone to sell. Also, Gil's kind of proud; he'd probably think that I'm pitying him for getting cold or something and he'll react badly."

Lexi nodded slowly. "You're probably right about that. How about just leaving it in engineering when he's not there?"

"Then he'll think that it belongs to someone else and they've just left it in there accidentally," Scott said but Lexi held up her hand.

"But when he asks around, he'll find out that’s not true," she told him.

Scott began to smile. "And there'll be nothing to stop him from using it the next time he gets cold. Brilliant!"

Lexi returned the smile and patted his arm before leaving.

Scott stared after her, a little confused by the wink she'd thrown him as she left, but he shrugged that off. He had a scarf to finish.

***

He wasn't normally a patient man and, to be fair, he still wasn't but the Moshae had requested that Scott acquire a certain relic for her, which led to an impromptu visit to a new Angaran planet followed by a lengthy battle with the Kett. So it was a few weeks before Scott thought about the scarf he’d snuck into engineering and that was only because he overheard Gil asking Suvi if she'd lost it. Suvi told him that she'd never seen the scarf before and Scott just shrugged when Gil looked in his direction, which meant that he got away without lying to Gil outright. 

Gil hummed and looked down at the scarf in his hand with a frown before leaving the bridge, presumably to see if it belonged to another crewmember. Scott stared after him with a smile playing on his lips; he was tempted to follow Gil as he tried to find out who the scarf belonged to but that would probably give the game away.

Scott looked back up to find Suvi watching him and he grinned at her, "My money's on it being Drack's."

Suvi laughed just as Scott had known she would. "A Krogan with a woollen scarf. Can you imagine?"

It took another couple of days before Scott saw Gil actually wearing the scarf. He'd been woken in the middle of the night cycle by a nightmare in which he had to face an exalted version of his father in battle. Unable to get back to sleep, he decided to work off the remnants of the dream by hitting Liam's punching bag for a while. As he walked through the cargo bay, he glanced up to engineering and spotted Gil busy at work with the familiar looking blue and yellow scarf wrapped around his neck.

Scott immediately detoured to the nearest ladder.

"How long has he been awake?" Scott quietly asked SAM.

Nineteen hours and thirteen minutes.

Scott shook his head. "You're supposed to monitor this."

Mr Brodie has eaten three meals today and is in no danger. However, I had planned to inform you if he was still working at the twenty four hour mark.

Leaning against the doorframe leading into engineering, Scott observed Gil for a few moments. If SAM didn't sense any danger in Gil's behaviour then Scott couldn't really argue against it just because he didn't like it. He knew that it was just how Gil was, an overachieving workaholic, and working these long hours hadn't adversely affected the ship or the team yet. Quite the opposite, in fact; the ship was in tip top condition and not even Kallo could dispute that.

With a small sigh, Scott decided to let it go. For another three hours and forty seven minutes.

"Do you just, biologically, have more energy than the rest of us?"

Gil jumped about a foot in the air and spun around to glare at Scott. "What the fuck? Why are you sneaking up on people?"

"I didn't sneak, I made plenty of noise. I was even chatting to SAM," Scott told him.

"It's the middle of the night, what are you even doing up?" Gil asked, ignoring Scott’s reply.

Scott crossed his arms and gave Gil a pointed look at that question.

Gil sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah. Pot, kettle and all that. I'm almost finished, I swear. I just need to check the results of the tests I've been running on the...stuff you really don't want to hear about..."

"It's not that I don't want to hear about it," Scott said with a small shrug. "It's just not my language, you know?"

"Wow! The almighty Pathfinder is admitting that he can’t do something?" Gil quipped and Scott chuckled.

"Hey, I'm allowed to be bad at the mechanical stuff," he joked back, puffing up his chest and pretending to buff his nails on his shirt. "Because I'm pretty damn good at everything else."

"Is that right?" Gil's voice lowered and his eyes flashed with something that made the hairs on the back of Scott's neck stand on end before the engineer shook himself out of whatever had momentarily fallen over him. "You didn't say why you were up so late? Everything okay?"

 "Couldn't sleep." Scott admitted, not wanting to get into why. "Thought I'd exhaust myself with some training when I spotted that flash of blue and yellow up here."

"Right." Gil tugged at the scarf. "It's the strangest thing; it doesn’t seem to belong to anyone. Somebody had to have left it in here but I’ve no idea who."

"Someone who's colour-blind?" Scott suggested with a grin.

He may be proud of the scarf but he couldn't deny that he really had managed to pick a garish combination of colours that looked even worse against Gil's ginger hair and orange jumpsuit.

"You may have a point. Luckily enough, I’m a fan of bright colours. It’s part of my unique style." Gil chuckled when Scott snorted at that. "The bonus is that it's lovely and warm. So tough luck to whoever lost it, it’s mine now. Hey, maybe, if I drop enough hints I can get whoever it is to lose a hat in here too; my neck's toasty but my ears still get pretty cold."

Scott thought quickly. He was pretty sure that he could knit a hat but if he did it now then Gil would know exactly who gave him the scarf.

"Put it on the crew info board. It's worth a try."

Gil smirked. "Brazen. I like it."

Something on Gil's terminal beeped and Scott could actually see the struggle going on in Gil's head; wanting to check the terminal and not wanting to be rude to Scott.

"Just read it," Scott told him with a smile and then pointed at the sleeping area set up in the corner. "But if you're still up when I finish training then I'm going to drag you over to your bed."

That something flashed in Gil's eyes again briefly, almost too fast for Scott to notice, but then he nodded resignedly. "I am feeling kind of tired. I'll be done soon, scout's honour."

Scott rolled his eyes as he pushed himself off the doorframe. "If you were a boy scout then I'm Tann's bestest buddy."

Gil's laughter followed him as Scott made his way to the training area but the man was as good as his word and when Scott left later that night, engineering was dark and very quiet.

***

Crew Info Board

Thanks for the Scarf.

Whoever left the scarf in engineering, it's now mine, all mine! Mwah ah ah! Serves you right for being so forgetful with your stuff. If anyone also wants to be forgetful with a hat, be fair warned that I'm going to claim that too. [Gil]

> What does mwah ah ah mean? [Jaal]

>> It's the sound of someone giving an evil laugh. [Liam]

>>> I am confused. Gil is not evil. [Jaal]

>>>> I beg to differ. [Kallo]

>>>>> [Profanity deleted by Info board VI] and your mother, Kallo! [Gil]

***

Scott literally face palmed as he watched the latest knitting tutorial vid and then sent a trepidatious look in the direction of his bedside drawers. That was where he'd hidden those vicious looking needles that were pointy at both ends and, of course, those were the needles he needed to make Gil a hat. Five of them. At the same time.

He was going to need a lot more medi-gel for this.

 ***

"Ryder, may I enquire about your meditation routine?" Jaal asked Scott one morning in the tech lab that the Angaran had claimed as his own. "Specifically which type of meditation you employ."

Scott tried to cover his panic at that question. "I...umm..."

"Dr T'Perro kindly gave me some reading material on the subject but I could not find a form of meditation which involved shouting," Jaal continued, seemingly oblivious to Scott's reaction.

"Shouting...?"

Jaal nodded. "Liam told me that there is some form of primal scream therapy, which involves screaming your anger out of you. However you do not appear to be an angry person, Ryder. Not enough to be yelling profanities during your meditation time for the past nine days."

"You could all hear that?" Scott closed his eyes and sighed loudly.

He'd been having a lot of trouble with the hat and the five needles of doom and so had been swearing more than strictly necessary but he hadn't realised it was loud enough to be overheard by the rest of the ship.

"I did not mean to embarrass you," Jaal said quickly, beginning to look concerned. "I was merely curious. I understand why meditation is important, especially when you carry so much responsibility. I wanted to learn..."

"I'm not meditating!" Scott suddenly blurted out then covered his face with his hands. "Shit!"

"Not meditating? Then why do you sequester yourself in your quarters so regularly?" Jaal asked, his head tilted in confusion. "I was led to believe that it was to, I believe the word is 'de-stress' from the pressures of being Pathfinder."

"It is," Scott told him. "I do that but not by meditating. And it's not primal screaming, I'm just..."

He sighed again. He'd already come this far and he did truly believe that Jaal was one of the crew members who wouldn't make fun of him. Jaal had recited poetry to Vetra, for crying out loud.

"Come with me and I'll show you," Scott said and led the way to his quarters, locking the door behind them. "I've been knitting."

Jaal frowned for a moment before nodding when he seemingly remembered where he'd heard that word before. "It was on a list of approved hobbies that Dr T'Perro sent us. I put it and a couple of the other activities she mentioned on my own list of words to learn but I have not yet reached it."

Scott tried to think of a way to explain knitting. "It's ...you use string to make a large piece of material...umm...let me just play one of the tutorial vids for you."

Jaal took a seat and curiously watched the vid that Scott had queued up.

"One of my mothers performs a similar activity. She weaves clothing to trade; she is quite famous for the beauty of her work," he said when the vid finished. He turned to Scott. "You hide the fact that you do this. Why?"

"Because it's not a common hobby for people under the age of 60. And certainly not men," Scott admitted. "It's what's known as an old granny's hobby and if the crew finds out that I enjoy it then they will never stop making fun of me for it. I'd rather just keep it between me and Lexi. And now you."

Jaal shook his head. "While I am deeply honoured to be trusted with this information, I am once again frustrated with the people from the Milky Way. To be ridiculed for performing a creative task, one which you have admitted you enjoy, because of your age and your gender is ludicrous."

"You're right, it is," Scott agreed. "But you have to understand that this comes from millennia of living in a patriarchal society. And you may not believe it but we are getting better; a couple of centuries ago women wouldn't have been allowed to be part of this crew - not that we had advanced to space travel then, but you get the idea. Unfortunately a couple of things are still looked upon as being a purely feminine activity and this is definitely one of them."

Jaal frowned. "Could you not be a trailblazer? You're the Pathfinder, if you enjoy this knitting then it will encourage other young men to try it."

"I could," Scott hedged. "But so much of my life now is already on display for the entire Initiative, I'd like to keep my private life private."

As he said that out loud, he realised just how true it was. Scott had spent his entire life being the background person; his father was the star of the family so the spotlight was always firmly on him while the rest of the family were the shadowy figures behind him. Even when his dad wasn't there, Scott was best known as the less outgoing Ryder twin. Sara was the effortlessly popular one, not that Scott ever begrudged her that; he liked being the quiet one, mostly left to his own devices unless Sara dragged him into trouble. But since Alec had died, Scott had been thrust firmly into the limelight and he hated it. Not the job, he loved the job, he just hated the attention that came with it.

He looked at Jaal who nodded sagely as if he completely understood and it made Scott wonder about Jaal’s own upbringing.

"May I see what items you have made so far?" Jaal asked and Scott jumped up to grab his hidden bag.

"I've given away the first couple of things but this is what I've been trying to make now," Scott told him as he pulled the mess of a hat out of the bag. "I think I've bitten off more than I can chew. Tried to go too advanced before I was ready for it," he clarified at Jaal's confused expression at the idiom.

Jaal hummed as he picked up the hat, miraculously avoiding getting stabbed by the evil needles. "What will it be when it is completed?"

"A hat," Scott admitted in a defeated tone as he stared at the tangled mess in Jaal's hands.

"Gil has requested a hat," Jaal said and nodded to himself. "You made the scarf; the one which he found in engineering, did you not? It was not the lost item we all believed it to be; you specifically wanted him to have it."

Scott nodded. "He gets cold easily. And after all that stuff with Kallo, I thought it would be nice to let him know that he really is...appreciated."

Jaal stared at Scott for long enough to make Scott fidget before he finally made a noise, as if he'd come to a decision. "I will take you to visit my mother; she will be able to show you how to finish this hat."

"I can't ask you to do that..." Scott started but Jaal held up a hand to stop him.

"You do not ask, I offer," he told Scott then smiled. "Besides, my mother will very much enjoy being able to pass along her knowledge to someone. I am afraid that none of us children were interested in her weaving besides wearing it; there were too many other pursuits to try.

Scott chuckled. "Well, when you put it that way..."

Jaal stood and clapped Scott on the back. "You are a good man, Ryder. You deserve happiness and I will help you achieve it."

"It's just knitting, Jaal. But I do appreciate the help, thank you," Scott replied.

***

True to his word, Jaal arranged to take Scott to visit his mother on the next visit to Havarl. If Scott had sped up proceedings by making up an excuse for why they had to go back to the Angaran planet sooner than anticipated then only he and Jaal knew it.

Scott had been a little nervous about meeting Jaal's family, there were an awful lot of them, but he needn't have worried. Apparently if Jaal had chosen to trust this outsider to their galaxy enough to bring him to the family home, then they were happy to follow his lead.

Jaal had definitely been right about the reaction of Hapep, one of his mothers, when she found out that Scott was interested in her weaving. She immediately ushered him into her workroom before she carefully studied the work that Scott had done on the hat so far. After that she instructed Scott to bring up the tutorial vid on his omnitool which she eagerly watched, regularly commenting on the differences and similaraties between this 'knitting' and her own weaving. She was so enthused that Scott decided then and there to return one day with the other tutorial vids and some popcorn for the pair of them. Finally Hapep asked Scott to knit a small flat piece of work so that she see 'his unique expression' before she threw Scott and Jaal out of the room so that she could work.

Scott was afraid that he'd done something wrong but Jaal assured him that was just Hapep’s way and then distracted Scott by showing him around the family home, ending with Jaal's childhood bedroom and a big insight into how Jaal had become the intelligent and curious man he was.

After a couple of hours, Scott was summoned back to Hapep's room alone. He was touched and a little overwhelmed to find that she had made him some new needles; each one a different length. They were made of a material Scott wasn't familiar with, that was strong yet flexible, allowing it to be bent into whatever shape Scott wanted.

"The reason for the five needles was to complete a circle," Hapep explained and Scott nodded because he knew that. "Each of these will also make a circle but will be simpler to use. Try one."

Scott cast stitches onto one of the needles then Hapep bent the needle into a circle. This allowed Scott to knit in, what was essentially, a continuous spiral and ultimately created a tube of material.

"This is brilliant!" Scott beamed at Jaal's mother. "Thank you so much!"

"Jaal has written often of your growing friendship and it is my pleasure to help you on his behalf." Hapep grinned back. "Although, I confess, I am also very pleased to find a fellow enthusiast; I hope that you will return so that I may show you how the Angarans' weave."

"You can count on it," Scott assured her.

"I look forward to that day," Hapep replied. "Now, this day grows long. Run along and find Jaal so that you may both return to your ship. I hope that your consort appreciates his gift when it is finished."

Scott was already half way out of the door before he registered that last part of what Hapep had said. "Consort?"

Hapep smiled at him indulgently. "He is a lucky man to have someone go to so much trouble on his behalf."

Before Scott could correct her, Jaal arrived with about ten members of his family who wished to say goodbye to the funny looking human. It wasn't until he and Jaal were alone on the shuttle that Scott could address it.

"Did you tell Hapep that Gil's my 'consort' in order to get her to help me?" he asked.

"She was already willing to help you, Ryder," Jaal replied. "I merely explained who and what the hat is for."

Scott frowned. "And you told her that he's my consort?"

"Is he not?" Jaal asked, confused. "A comrade? Associate? Ally? Did I use the word incorrectly? "

Jaal was right, the dictionary definition of 'consort' was friend; it wasn't his fault that the word had different connotations sometimes. Even with the translator in effect, it couldn't be easy trying to get to grips with all the nuances of a new style of speaking.

"No, Jaal, you used it correctly," Scott assured him. “I just…I thought that she meant something else.”

Jaal laughed loudly but didn’t comment further and Scott let it slide as one of those Angaran quirks they were still learning about.

***

Thanks to the fancy new needles that Hapep had gifted him with, Scott made short work of the hat.  In fact, he'd finished it much earlier than expected. He'd planned to leave it in engineering while Gil was visiting his friend, Jill, the next time they were on the Nexus but they were still a couple of days out. He sat on his bed and grabbed a new ball of yarn, intending on making something for Lexi, maybe another scarf; he had a theory that if he used much larger needles than last time, the holes would be bigger and create a pretty lacy effect that would suit Lexi down to the ground. But he caught sight of Gil's hat, hidden in the bottom of the bag, and he chuckled at the sight of it.

He'd originally intended to knit a yellow hat to match the scarf but when he'd tested the new needle with Hapep he'd used a spare ball of green yarn which he’d taken with him, just in case. Of course, once Scott had started, he got on a roll and didn't want to unravel the work he'd already done just to redo it in yellow. So the hat was a bright green, which was definitely keeping to the whole clashing colours theme and he had a feeling that Gil would love that. Scott mentally pictured Gil in the hat and scarf and then a mischievous idea struck him.

"SAM, can you research how to make a pom-pom?"

***

Whereas the last time Scott left a present for Gil he'd been too busy to pay much attention to Gil finding it, this time things were relatively quiet (for them) so Scott found himself wandering past engineering or persuading Drack to throw another weapons training session for the crew in the cargo bay just so that he could know if Gil had found the hat yet. It was his own fault for not just leaving it on the console where Gil wouldn't be able to miss it. Instead, at the last moment, he'd hidden it in one of Gil's tool boxes so that he would know that the hat was definitely for him and not just left behind accidentally. Which was ridiculous because Gil had left that message on the Crew Info Board specifically asking for a hat so, of course, he'd know it was for him. Scott had just had a sudden attack of nerves over it, for some reason.

It had only actually been a couple of days but Scott  was slowly driving himself crazy with waiting to see what Gil thought of his latest gift. He'd even started considering sneaking into engineering during the very small window when Gil was away from the room and moving it to somewhere more prominent.

He was sparring with Cora in one corner of the cargo bay, using biotics only, when he finally heard a loud guffaw from above them before Gil bounded onto the gangway in his new green hat with it's giant purple pom-pom.

"Oh, good god; what the hell is that?" Cora stared up at Gil in horror while Scott burst out laughing at the absolutely delighted expression on the man's face.

He knew that Gil would like it.

"It's my new hat!" Gil told Cora. "What do you think? Oh, wait..."

He ran back into engineering only to emerge a couple of minutes later with the scarf on as well. "I had to show you the full effect," he said, flipping one end of the scarf over his shoulder in a rakish manner.

Cora shook her head in disbelief. "I think it's..."

"...perfect," Scott finished, with a big grin, when she seemed unable to find the words.

Gil stared right at him for a long moment which made Scott feel a little twitchy before he grinned back.

"Too right, it is!" he declared. "I don't know who's leaving this stuff but they are awesome! I've got to show Suvi!"

Scott chuckled as he watched that pom-pom bounce across the gangway and out of the room; adding that to the hat had definitely been a good decision.

"I also don't know who's leaving this stuff but they are decidedly not awesome," Cora muttered. "The rest of us have to look at him wearing those monstrosities."

"I'll buy you some sunglasses," Scott promised her. "That might dim the brightness a bit."

Cora shook her head. "Where do you even buy something that garish? Even on Kadara they seem to have some modicum of taste."

"On Kadara?" Scott gave her a doubtful look. " Are you sure about that?"

"Okay, maybe a 'modicum' of taste is a bit too much," she allowed. "But I've still never seen anything that loud in their market."

Scott shrugged, as if unconcerned. "They're coming from somewhere."

"And someone," Cora added with a nod before she hit him with a shockwave while he wasn't paying attention.

Scott groaned as he limped into the kitchen ten minutes later and grabbed an ice pack before slumping onto a seat. Cora had been less than apologetic about sending him flying across the cargo bay and into the wall on the other side.

"What the hell happened to you?" Liam asked, walking into the kitchen with Peebee.

"Cora," Scott said and Peebee laughed.

"She kicked your ass in training again, didn't she?"

Scott held the ice pack to the back of his head. "I don't know about kicked but she definitely threw it across the room."

Liam dropped down onto the seat next to him. "You need to work on your barriers, Ryder."

"Tell me something I don't know," Scott groused.

"The identity of Gil's secret admirer," Peebee replied as she hopped up onto the counter again. "Or do you? You don't, right? Because you'd tell us if you did."

Scott blinked at her. "Secret admirer?"

"God, Ryder! Where've you been?" Liam elbowed him in the side. "Someone's been leaving gifts for Gil."

"I know that; I saw the hat," Scott said. "But secret admirer? Does Gil think that?"

Scott started to get a knot in his stomach.

"Gifts from an anonymous someone who obviously cares about his wellbeing? What else would he think?" Peebee told him. "Who do you think it is?"

"My money's on that Angaran, Livual. The wannabe engineer who follows Gil about when we're on Aya," Liam said. "Got to be her."

"Gil's gay," Peebee pointed out and Liam rolled his eyes.

"Well, yeah. But does she know that?"

Peebee shook her head. "No, it's that guy from the Nexus; the one who sent Gil that ridiculous email about him being...umm...what was it?" She snapped her fingers a few times, quickly, as she remembered. "Invigorating!"

Liam laughed. "Oh, that guy! The Invigorator!"

"Think about it!" Peebee continued enthusiastically. "We were at the Nexus just before Gil found each gift. Clearly us being docked gave the guy the opportunity to sneak aboard. And the email showed that he clearly has it bad for Gil. It's him; has to be!"

Scott frowned and tried to head this off at the pass. "We were on the Nexus like two or three weeks before he found the scarf, right? Would Gil have missed that it was there for that long?"

Liam pointed at Scott. "You're right; there's no way he wouldn't have seen that loud."

"Maybe it was just hidden well," Peebee said, waving her hand in the air dismissively. "It's definitely him and I think that we should help him out."

"Whoa, what?" Scott asked while at the same time, Liam said,

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"It's a great idea," Peebee insisted. "They'll be so cute together and he clearly gets Gil and his twisted sense of humour if he knew to buy him stuff which deliberately clashed like that. Gil's a great guy and he deserves to be happy, don't you think?"

"Of course but not with the Invigorator," Scott scoffed, remembering him from the Nexus when he tried to use Scott to find out if Gil was still single. "He's creepy. Gil needs someone better, you know? Someone who appreciates him..."

Scott trailed off. He had a sudden flashback to the day he'd confided in Jaal about the knitting. He'd told Jaal that he'd made the scarf so that Gil would know that he was appreciated; he used that exact word. Then once he had that particular memory, a load of others began to flood his mind. The warm feeling he got from Gil's emails, the way the hairs on the back of his neck stood up when Gil gave him one of those intense looks, how talking to Gil could lift Scott's spirits even after a horrible day, his immediate dislike of the Invigorator after he showed interest in Gil, that one night they all went drinking in Vortex and how Scott remembered thinking that the lights flashing across Gil's skin made him look strangely beautiful...

Oh shit! He had a crush on Gil! Of course he did, why else would he go to so much trouble to make the man a hat in order to make him smile? And keep him warm, obviously, but mainly to make him smile.

 If Sara was awake she'd have known exactly what was going on and would be laughing herself sick because it was like Fletcher Booth all over again. Fletcher had been Scott's best friend at school. For Fletcher’s sixteenth birthday, Scott saved up for months to buy a rare edition of The Hound comic book, one that was missing from Fletcher's treasured collection. Not only had it been expensive but Scott had had to track down a copy for sale, talk one of the C-Sec guards on the Citadel to pose as him to purchase it because the seller wouldn't 'deal with clueless kids' and then arrange to get it transported from Earth to the Citadel. When Scott had finally, proudly presented Fletcher with the gift, Fletcher had gently but firmly informed Scott that while they were great friends, he didn’t feel that way about him. Then, as Scott had continued to stare blankly at the other boy, Fletcher had patted his arm sympathetically and told Scott that he just wasn’t gay.

 It had been like a switch being flicked in Scott’s brain and Sara had commented at the time, that she could actually see the moment Scott realised that he was gay. And that all the effort he’d gone to for Fletcher’s birthday was because he had a massive, all encompassing crush on the boy.

On the plus side, Scott did get a date with that C-Sec guard but only Sara knew about that and that was besides the point anyway. The point was that Scott should have figured out way before now that he had feelings for Gil.

He was so rubbish at this stuff.

Scott stood up abruptly, startling Liam and Peebee out of their continued argument over whether Peebee should set Gil and the Nexus guy up.

"You okay, Ryder?" Liam asked slowly. "You don't look so hot."

Scott nodded distractedly. "I have to...I have to go do a thing."

He walked out of the galley, meaning to go into his quarters but instead he turned left and walked out into the cargo bay instead. He pretended to check the trap he'd put down for whatever critter had been hiding out on the ship, even though he'd already checked it less than an hour before. Instead he covertly watched engineering because he needed to make sure. When Gil came into view Scott's heartbeat sped up and the corner of his mouth involuntarily turned up onto a smile. Gil happened to glance down and caught Scott's eye, he grinned and nodded at Scott before turning back to whatever he was working on and Scott couldn't deny the fluttering in his stomach. Yep, he definitely wanted Gil.

"Scott!"

Scott jumped, guiltily, at the sudden noise and turned to see Lexi glaring at him with a sheepish looking Liam standing behind her.

"Forget something, Pathfinder?" Lexi asked, her hands on her hips. "Like maybe visiting the ship's medic after you got thrown across a room by a biotic?"

Scott sighed and looked at Liam. "Did you tell on me?”

Liam held his hands up. "Hey, you were icing a bump on your head and then you got all pale and looking like you might throw up. That screams concussion and we don't need you collapsing on us."

"Medbay! Now!" Lexi barked and spun on her heel, leaving the room without looking to check if Scott was following.

Scott shook his head, gave a now smirking Liam the finger and headed out of the cargo bay. He took a final glance up at engineering to find that Gil was leaning in his doorway, watching the entertainment with a very amused expression on his face. Scott gave him the finger too and couldn't stop his grin at the sound of Gil's laughter.

He was in so much trouble.

***

The next week was a bit of a blur. Scott had barely finished his check up with Lexi before Cora came running into the room because she'd finally deciphered the transponder, tracked down the Asari ark and it was only two days out from their current location.  They'd immediately jumped into battle mode. They had no idea what to expect when they reached the Leusinia so the entire crew came together to try and cover all eventualities from prepping weapons to making plans for an emergency extraction.

Then came the actual infiltration of the Luesinia and the battle to stop the Kett from taking over. It took over three days of hard fighting coupled with the emotionally draining fallout from Sarissa Theris' actions but they finally did it. They’d got another missing ark back and it felt like a true victory.

There was the usual mountain of emails that Scott needed to deal with once he got back onboard the Tempest, not to mention a report to write on the latest pain in the ass version of the kett they'd come across - an Ascendant. But the crew wanted to celebrate and there was no way that Scott was going to get in the way of that; they all deserved it.

"Come on, kid. Time to relax!" Drack handed Scott a mug of drink then bashed his own mug against it.

Scott took a mouthful and instantly regretted it. It not only tasted foul but it burned the roof of his mouth. Drack was watching him intently and Scott realised it was some kind of test, one that he'd fail if he spat the stuff out, so he forced himself to swallow it down and then doubled over coughing. Drack laughed and helpfully smacked Scott's back a few times.

"Good job, Ryder. I knew you could do it!" He boomed.

The mug in Scott's hand disappeared and was replaced by another one.

"Here, drink this instead," Vetra said and through the tears that had sprung to Scott's eyes, he could see her giving Drack a disapproving look.

Scott tentatively tried the new drink and sighed in relief when he realised it was just water. He downed the rest of the mug in one.

"Thank you," he told Vetra gratefully and she smiled at him.

"At least you kept it down; Kosta threw the stuff right back up," she said. "Suvi's fine though, she’s barely winced."

Scott looked over at Suvi who was chatting animatedly with Kallo and Jaal, taking sips from her mug with no problem whatsoever.

"That’s because she's Scottish," Gil said, appearing next to Vetra and handing Scott yet another mug of something. "They've all got iron stomachs. Never challenge a Scot to a drinking competition, even the tiny ones like Suvi."

This time Scott sniffed at his drink and took a tiny sip. It was normal human made whiskey, a little rough around the edges but definitely drinkable, unlike the Krogan version.

"Better?" Gil asked and Scott nodded.

"Much better," he agreed. "Where did you get this? On Kadara?"

Gil snorted. "Please! I can do better than Kadara!" He looked around and then leaned in a little closer. "A few of us engineers set up a secret still on the Nexus, way before you reached us. I get to fill a couple of bottles from it whenever we dock there."

Scott momentarily struggled not to flush at the sudden proximity or do something ridiculous like lick Gil's neck.  Now that he’d actually realised he had a crush, his reactions to Gil had increased exponentially. "How do you keep it hidden from Tann and Addison?"

"Kesh." Gil gave him a devilish smile. "She's more than happy to help us. She didn't even want any of the whiskey for herself, she says it's too weak; she's just content to be outmanoeuvring the other directors."

Scott chuckled. "I bet it's won the engineers over to her side."

"We were already on her side," Gil said. "But it’s probably helped to keep us there."

"Ryder, Ryder, Ryder!" Peebee draped herself over his side. "Why aren't you drunk yet?"

"He has only just arrived," Gil pointed out.

"Someone had to vidcall Tann," Scott told them. "I figured that I'd jump on the grenade and save the rest of you from having to be there."

"My hero," Gil said with another one of those mischievous smiles that suddenly made Scott want to drag him off to a darkened corner somewhere.

Seriously, how had he never figured out this attraction before?

"You are a hero," Peebee agreed and then hiccupped before continuing. "I may not have the warm and fuzzies about the rest of the Asari but it would've sucked to suddenly become one of an endangered species, you know? But you saved them so...thank you, I guess."

She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "If you tell anyone I got soppy over the Asari ark, I'll programme Poc to perform a castration on you while you sleep."

Scott laughed. "I'm pretty sure I'd wake up if that happened."

"Would you, though? Would you?" She patted his other cheek and tottered over to Drack and Lexi, probably to try and needle Lexi for her own entertainment.

Gil stared after her. "For an Asari, she's a real lightweight when it comes to drinking."

Scott chuckled because it was true but his smile faded when he caught sight of Cora lurking sadly in the corner of the room.

"You should go and talk to her," Gil said, following his gaze. "She looks like she could do with a friend."

"Yeah," Scott nodded and smiled his thanks when Gil topped up his drink before moving away to talk to someone else.

Scott took a fortifying swig from the mug and then headed towards Cora.

"Are you okay?"

Cora startled at the sound of Scott's voice which went to show just how shaken she was, she was normally aware of everything around her.

"I'm fine," she told him and gave him a truly horrible attempt at a smile.

"Bullshit!" Scott said as he leaned against the wall next to her. "I know how much you looked up to Sarissa; there's no shame in being upset about what she did."

He knew what heartbreak looked like and that was exactly what he'd seen on Cora's face when she realised that her hero had let the Asari Pathfinder die and was directly responsible for the Kett attacking the Asari ark.

"I'm mad at myself as much as I am at her," Cora admitted, staring into her drink. "After we lost Alec and then found the Nexus so...broken, I pinned all of my hopes on her. I decided that she was going to be the person to save us all. It's so ridiculous in hindsight but..."

"I get it," Scott told her. "She's your hero; the mighty Sarissa Theris. The woman's a legend; if anyone could save us it would be her and..."

"Was," Cora interrupted. "She was my hero. I can't respect anyone who did what she did. I guess that I'll have to find a new hero, huh?"

Cora's smile was more like an actual smile this time.

"I've got the perfect person," Scott told her and she rolled her eyes so hard that Scott was surprised she didn’t hurt herself.

"You're going to say you, aren't you?"

"No. Although two people have called me a hero in the past half hour, I’ll have you know," Scott replied with a smirk. "Actually, I was going to say Cora Harper."

Cora snorted and jabbed her bony elbow into his side. "Not funny, Ryder."

"I didn't intend for it to be," Scott said with a wince. "I'm serious, Cora. You are a far better person than Sarissa Theris could ever hope to be. You're kind, you're a complete badass and you're fiercely loyal. I've never once had to worry about you not having my back no matter how dangerous things got or how many crazy situations my decisions dragged us into. Not even when you were all pissed off about Dad making me Pathfinder instead of you. You're the hero, not a veteran who’s let their own reputation go to their head."

"I...umm..." Cora swallowed hard and stared at her drink again.

The conversation had obviously taken an uncomfortably weighty turn, no matter how much it had needed to be said, so Scott figured that it was time to lighten things up again.

"Don't get me wrong, you're not my hero; that's obviously Liam Kosta. I was thinking about setting up a shrine to him with lots of topless photos…and maybe some sparkly lights."

Cora burst out laughing and smacked Scott's chest so Scott considered it a job well done.

The rest of the party was a whirl of moonshine and merriment and weird Krogan drinking songs. It was exactly what they all needed and more than once, Scott found himself standing back to watch his crew with a feeling of pride.

***

Tann had ordered Scott to return to the Nexus alongside the Asari ark. He wanted to make a big show of it and apparently Scott had to be there too. As much as Scott bristled at Tann ordering him to do anything, he did want to make sure that there were no problems integrating the new Asari into the Nexus; the directors didn't exactly have the best track record in dealing with people, after all.

During the journey, Scott thought more and more about the Gil situation. He obviously wanted the other man and not just for a bit of fun or a chance to blow off some steam; Scott had had his fair share of casual relationships but that wasn't what he was looking for now. And he wasn't really sure what Gil would want from a relationship but he did have vague memories about a drunken conversation they'd all had at the party, where they discussed what they wanted from life in Andromeda when all of this was over. He could remember that Gil had mentioned something about kids and a legacy, while Peebee booed him,  so he was pretty sure that if Gil was looking then he wasn't looking for a fling either. He was also pretty sure that he was over thinking things; he didn't even know if Gil would be really interested in him beyond friendship. It was another one of those times when he really missed his sister; she’d be able to tell him what to do, albeit with lots of taunting.

Eventually he decided to keep things simple. He was going to invite Gil to game of poker in the Vortex Lounge and see where things went from there.

Decision made, he finished writing his reports and then went looking for Gil. He found the other man beneath the Nomad, muttering loudly about driving off cliffs and the damage it caused.

"You know, it's not the easiest thing in the universe to drive," Scott drawled, jumping up to sit on a crate besides the vehicle. "And sometimes you just don't see the cliff until the last second. It's not like there are roads to help me.”

There was a loud thud and then some creative swearing before Gil rolled out from under the Nomad and pinned Scott with a glare.

"You're doing that sneaking up on me thing again," he accused and Scott smirked.

"Maybe if you stopped talking to yourself so loudly, you'd hear me coming."

"I wasn't talking to myself," Gil told him and then patted the Nomad as he pushed himself to his feet. "I was talking to my girl."

"Your girl?" Scott laughed. "I bet you've given it a nickname too, haven't you?"

Gil grinned. "Oh, there would have to be something really good on the line for me to admit to anything like that."

"He's called it 'Naomi'," Liam shouted down from the gangway as he walked past and Gil sighed and shook his head.

"Ignore him, he's still pissed that I relieved him of all his credits last night and wants to ruin everyone's fun," he told Scott before raising his voice enough that Liam could hear him. "It's sad, it really is."

"I'll beat you next time, Brodie!" Liam threw back over his shoulder as he left the area.

"You can try, Kosta!" Gil called back.

Scott chuckled at their antics. "Speaking of poker, I owe you a rematch. Without SAM."

Gil turned his attention back to Scott. "That you do. And I’m more than happy to take your credits too; I need to buy some eezo for a personal project I'm working on."

"You too? Everyone seems to have secret projects these days," Scott said. "I think Peebee started a trend."

Jaal was holed up in the tech lab a lot of the time, making something that he wouldn't let anyone else see yet and Liam was definitely up to something. Also Cora kept disappearing whenever they landed on Eos, promising that she'd explain 'when it was ready'.

"It's your fault, really," Gil told him and Scott blinked in surprise before the other man explained. "Do you think that we all just sit around twiddling our thumbs when you're holed up in your quarters meditating? We take the time to unwind and do something that's not work too."

"Really?" It hadn't really occurred to Scott the rest of the crew would take advantage of Scott's downtime. "Lexi's making you do it, isn't she?"

"Of course she is," Gil drawled. "You just had to go and pay attention to one of her emails about relaxing and 'serve as an example to the rest of us'."

Scott snorted at Gil's atrocious impression of Lexi and Gil grinned at him.

"Anyway, I was thinking that I could contribute to your secret project fund tomorrow night. We'll be at the Nexus by then and I'm pretty sure that after dealing with Tann's gloating about the ark, I'll need to blow off some steam."

Gil's grin faded and he winced a little. "Tomorrow? I'm busy, sorry."

"That's okay; it was late notice for me to ask you. We can play another night." Scott was a little disappointed but it wasn't the end of the world. "Are you meeting Jill?"

"Jill? No, she's still in Prodomos," Gil told him and began to look awkward. "I...I have a date, actually."

"Oh!" Scott's stomach dropped. "Well, that’s certainly more important. Umm...well, have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"I'll try not to," Gil chuckled but it sounded as strained as the air had suddenly become between them.

"Okay," Scott pushed himself off the crate after a long moment of silent awkwardness. "I've got emails to be replying to so I'll see you later."

Gil nodded. "See you, Ryder."

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Scott cursed under his breath all the way back to his room.

He'd spent too long worrying and now he'd missed his chance.

His bad mood carried into the next day but it came in handy for dealing with Tann and Addison; once they'd realised how thin his control was right then, they both backed off a little. It had earned him a clap on the back from Kandros that almost sent him stumbling to his knees but he wasn't in the mood to appreciate that either. It took a visit to Sara before he began to settle down a bit. Harry had astutely left the two of them alone and Scott was able to slump in the chair beside Sara's bed, hold her too still hand and just talk to her. He closed his eyes and imagined that she was awake and was listening intently but getting ready to smack him upside the head when he finished, as she always had when she thought he was wallowing. He wasn't sure if she could hear him; Harry claimed that she probably could but that no one really knew until the person woke up. Scott kind of hoped that if she could, she'd forget most of it. It was just rambling nonsense and trying to get all his thoughts out of his head, but he couldn't deny that he felt better once he'd done it. 

After Harry had shooed Scott out of the medbay for the evening, Scott found himself at a loss for what to do. He wandered around the Nexus for a while, visited SAMnode and grabbed a book he needed from his father's quarters (which were technically Scott's now but he couldn't bring himself to actually use them). Eventually, he decided to track down Vederia. The new Asari Pathfinder had already seemed a little overwhelmed throughout Tann's big speech and Scott wanted to make sure that the Nexus directors hadn't made things worse with their squabbling and bickering.

He tracked her down to the pretentiously named Pathfinder HQ and rolled his eyes when he saw that Tann had cornered her.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," Scott said as he approached them, taking in the flash of relief in Vederia's eyes.

"Of course not," Tann replied, smoothly. "Myself and the new Pathfinder were just becoming friends."

"Well, you are a friendly guy, Tann," Scott said dryly before turning his attention to Vederia. "Are you still up for that tour I promised, Damali?"

Scott had promised no such thing but, as he expected, Vederia immediately latched onto the excuse to escape the director.

"Definitely," she told him. "I've been looking forward to it."

With that they gave Tann their farewells and Scott ushered Vederia out of the hall.

"Thank you so much," she said as soon as they were free and Scott chuckled.

"Always happy to rescue someone from our director. He's all politics, which isn't for me...as you can probably tell."

Vederia laughed too. "I could; you don't really hide your distaste of him or Addison."

Scott shrugged. "The first thing they did when I arrived was try to sway me to their sides because a Pathfinder would give them more political clout. This was when the Nexus still barely had power and everyone was struggling after the riots. It left a bad taste in my mouth and I guess I don't have much patience for people like that."

"I've already had both of them recommend ‘certain ways of acting in my new role'," Vederia confided in him.

Scott had suspected as much. "Look, they are the directors but we're the Pathfinders. They're technically in charge but they need us so don't let them push you around. You know the best thing for your people so let that be your driving force; not how we're all going to look in the history books."

Again Vederia looked relieved and Scott was glad that he'd decided to track her down.

"You should write some kind of Pathfinder instruction manual," she told him, teasingly. "We can hide it in SAMnode and only Pathfinders will be able to access it."

"'Scott Ryder's Guide to Finding Paths and Avoiding Bullshit.'" He frowned. "Yeah, we need a better title than that. SAM? Can you come up with something?"

For your hypothetical, imaginary instruction manual?  SAM asked aloud. I will add it to my 'to do' list, Scott.

Vederia burst out laughing. "Wow! They told us that each SAM starts to take on the personality of their Pathfinder but that's amazing!"

Scott smirked, actually pretty proud of SAM's increasing levels of sarcasm.

"Come on. Chapter eleven of the manual teaches you that you need to take some downtime to unwind and stop things overwhelming you. Your chief medic will discuss that with you in more depth, believe me." He rolled his eyes and Vederia chuckled. "But for now, I think we'll start your de-stressing lesson at the Vortex."

"What's the Vortex?" She tilted her head curiously.

Scott smiled mischievously and held out his arm, causing her to giggle and link her arm with his before he led her through the Nexus.

As expected Liam was propping up the bar at Vortex Lounge and Scott quickly introduced him and Vederia properly before ordering drinks from the perpetually grumpy Dutch.

"...and then apparently the Pathfinder is shaking his ass up there like he's auditioning for a job as a dancer at Flux, you know what I'm saying."

"Hey!" Scott returned to the end of the bar in time to hear the tail end of the story Liam was telling Vederia. "What did I tell you about making up ridiculous stories about me?"

Vederia was laughing as she turned to Scott. "So you're saying that you didn't get drunk enough to shake your stuff on that stage over there?"

"Never happened!" Scott insisted vehemently before leaning in closer so that only Vederia could hear him. "But if the bar staff ask you to try out an experimental new cocktail, say ‘no’."

As Vederia broke down into more snickers, Scott noticed that Liam kept craning his neck to look over Scott's shoulder. Turning he followed Liam's line of sight and then groaned quietly when he saw Gil sitting at a table on the other side of the room. With the Invigorator.

God fucking damn it! The big date was with him?

"You okay, Ryder?"

Scott plastered a smile on his face and turned back to Liam. "Sure. I just thought we agreed that guy was creepy. I'm assuming that this is Peebee's doing?"

Liam nodded. "You know Peebee, once she gets an idea in her head she doesn't stop. Although Gil's the one who actually made the date, Peebee just pushed him into emailing the guy."

"Friends of yours?" Vederia asked.

"Our ship's engineer," Scott told her, nodding towards the table.

"On a hot date," Liam added with a lascivious grin.

"Ooh!" Vederia leaned around Scott to get a better look. "Wow! It seems like years since we could just kick back and gossip about stuff."

"Well, you came to the right place," Liam told her but Scott's attention was only half on them as they continued to chatter, the rest was focussed on the so-called 'hot date'.

When he spotted Gil stand and walk to the bar to apparently buy them more drinks, Scott quickly downed the rest of his whiskey and announced that he was buying another round, despite the fact that he'd purchased the last one. He pushed through the crowd at the busy bar until he was standing beside Gil.

"Enjoying your evening," he asked in, what he hoped was, a conspiratorial tone.

Gil gave a small smile but kept looking forward; presumably so that his date wouldn't think that he'd started chatting up someone else at the bar. "Yeah. It's...nice."

"Nice?" Scott raised an eyebrow. "That's good, I guess."

Gil shrugged. "I think he's nervous. Leaving me gifts is one thing but an actual date is another. I'm sure he'll relax soon."

Scott looked at Gil in shock. "Leaving you gifts?"

"Yes, he bought me the scarf and hat," Gil explained, still not looking directly at Scott. "Didn't Peebee tell you?"

"Peebee? She told you that?" Scott asked, mentally kicking himself for not guessing that she would tell Gil her theory.

Gil nodded. “Well, she suspected that it was him but then Bailey confirmed it when I asked him."

"Did he really?"

Scott guessed that some of his anger bled into his voice because Gil gave up his pretence of not talking to him and turned to look at Scott in surprise.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked in a low voice that Scott could only just make out over the music.

He wanted to tell Gil that the gifts were from him, to march over to Bailey and call him a liar, demand that he tell the Gil the truth, but Scott knew that would make a scene and that he'd ultimately end up embarrassing Gil in front of a bar full of people. So instead he gave Gil a tight smile.

"I'm fine," he told Gil. "It's just been a long day."

Gil frowned and clearly didn't believe Scott, not entirely.

"Sorry." Scott shook his head and started to move away. "I didn't mean to disturb your evening with my bad mood. I'll see you later, Brodie."

He pushed his way back through the crowd to Liam and Vederia and pretended that he couldn't feel Gil's concerned gaze on his back.

"I thought you were getting more drinks, Ryder," Liam said with a slight slur to his voice and waving his empty glass at him.

"Yeah, sorry guys; I need to go," Scott told them. "Damali, can you look after Kosta here?"

"Hey!" Liam said indignantly but Vederia gave Scott an amused look.

"I'll make sure he gets back to your ship, safe and sound," she said. "What kind of Pathfinder would I be otherwise?"

Scott gave her a smile and a wink before leaving the bar, the smile dropping from his face almost as soon as he was out of the door. He quickly made his way back towards the Tempest, determined to just shut himself away in his quarters and scream or punch the wall or something. Instead he stopped and groaned as he heard a familiar voice calling his name.

"There you are, I've been looking for you," Peebee said as she bounded up to him. "Come on, we've got to go and observe the fruits of our labours. Gil's on his date right now and we need to be there!"

"Did you tell Gil that the Invigorator gave him those gifts?" Scott blurted out before he could stop himself but Peebee didn't seem phased.

"I told him to ask," she admitted with a grin. "And I was right, he did. In your face, Kosta!"

"No, he didn't," Scott said but she rolled her eyes with a 'pfft' noise.

"Of course he did. Why else would he admit to it?"

"Oh, I don't know," Scott drawled. "To get a date with the guy he's been panting after for months."

Peebee frowned. "That's unlikely. And why do you think that he’s lying, anyway? Did you hear something?"

Shit! Scott tried to come up with a plausible reason for his insistence but he apparently took too long because Peebee's eyes widened in realisation.

"Oh my god! Y..." She stopped, looked at the handful of people still milling around and then dragged Scott into a nearby alcove for privacy. "You bought the gifts, didn't you? You totally have the hots for Gil!"

Scott hushed her even though, rationally, he knew that no one could hear them but she ignored him.

"How didn't I see this before? You looooooooove him!"

"I don't lo..." Scott started but Peebee interupted him with a sudden gasp.

"Oh! That rat!" Her eyes flashed with anger. "I just realised that scumbag is taking credit for your amateurish seductions!"

"Hey!" Scott protested but Peebee was on a roll.

"He lied to Gil He lied to me!" She began to pace as she ranted. "Nobody lies to me and gets away with it! Okay, so lots of people lie to me and get away with it but not this guy. Not the Invigorator! God! I was willing to overlook that stupid email too, because I thought he was being nervous and sweet and good for Gil! Liar, liar, pants on fire! We need to go and put a stop to this, right now!"

"Peebee!" Scott managed to grab her before she ran out of the alcove. "Stop! I've already been tempted to do what you're about to do and we'll just end up humiliating Gil."

"But he needs to know that this Bailey guy is lying to him," Peebee protested, struggling against Scott's hold. "And I need to punch the liar, very hard, on his nose!"

"No, we need to let Gil finish his date in peace, Peebs," Scott insisted.

"But he's on a date with the wrong person," Peebee maintained. "He should be on a date with you; you're made for each other!"

Scott actually turned Peebee bodily to face him so that he could give her an unimpressed look at that comment.

"Alright," she acquiesced. "So I didn't think of you together before five minutes ago but now that I have, it's so obvious that you'd be perfect."

"Right." Scott gave an unamused huff. "Perfect."

Now that Peebee had stopped trying to get away to run to the Vortex Lounge, Scott let her go and stepped back. "I'm heading back to the ship. Try not to punch anyone."

"Hey!" Peebee trotted after him as he left the alcove. "You can't leave me hanging like that. How long has this been going on? Why did you leave the hat and scarf like that? Why didn't you just ask him out?"

"I did ask him out," Scott told her as they walked down the corridor. "Last night."

"Ouch!" Peebee winced. "Sorry."

"S'alright. You didn't know," Scott told her, feeling a little more generous towards her since she'd leapt to his defence like that. "And as for the gifts...I didn't know."

Peebee frowned. "You didn't know what?"

"I didn't know how I felt about him. I thought that I was just being a good team leader," he admitted and gave a small smile at her incredulous look. "I could blame it on being so busy with the Pathfinding but, to be honest, I've always been pretty oblivious when it comes to figuring out my own feelings. I usually have Sara to point things like this out to me but this time I had to figure it out by myself, which didn't happen until you and Liam started talking about Gil's 'secret admirer'."

"Ryder." Peebee shook her head. "It's times like this that I can't believe you're in charge of fixing this galaxy."

"Gee, thanks."

She grinned and knocked her shoulder into his as they made it up the ramp. "Well you clearly need someone to look out for the non-Pathfinder Ryder until Sara wakes up. I'll guess that I'll just have to add that to my list of responsibilities."

Scott stopped walking and stared at her. "Uh, no. That's fine. I'm...fine."

"You're clearly not," she told him. "Stop looking so scared, I don't bite."

"Liam's neck begs to differ," Scott muttered, causing her to smirk at him. "No matchmaking!"

The smirk dropped immediately. "What? No! That's the whole point!"

"Peebee, please. Leave it be," Scott asked and she sighed, crossing her arms sulkily.

"Fine. Just put away the ridiculously cute puppy dog eyes."

She may have agreed not to try and set Scott and Gil up but she didn't leave things there. Instead she followed Scott to the galley and, over some drinks, quizzed him for close to two hours about his feelings for Gil, his previous relationships and his general type; clearly determined not to miss it the next time Scott needed someone to tell him who he liked. Finally, she ran out of questions and Scott was allowed to escape to his quarters as he'd planned to do when he left the Vortex Lounge. Except, he no longer had an urge to scream or hit things so clearly talking to Peebee had helped after all. Not that he’d admit that to her.

It was still too early to go to sleep so he pulled out the lacy scarf he was making for Lexi, put on some music and lost himself in his knitting for a while. In fact he completely lost track of time until his stomach began to protest so he put the knitting to one side and walked to the door, determined to hunt down some snacks. He pulled up short when he opened his door and found Gil pacing outside.

"Well, this is embarrassing," Gil said with a wince. "Can we just pretend that I wasn't lurking outside of your room like a stalker?"

"O-kay..." Scott replied. "But why are you lurking outside of my room?"

"Because I wanted to ask...umm..." Gil began, rubbing the back of his neck and looking adorably awkward. "Did you leave me the hat and scarf? Because I've been thinking about how pissed off you suddenly got earlier and that's the only thing that makes sense."

"Gil..." Scott started but, before he could continue, he heard Peebee's voice heading their way, along with Liam who had also returned to the ship it seemed. "You'd better come in; we shouldn't be talking in a corridor where nosy Asaris can listen in."

Gil huffed in amusement and then walked into the room when Scott stepped aside. He looked around curiously before following the sound of squeaking to Scott's desk.

"Have you named him?" he asked, reaching into the little cage to pet the not-a-hamster that Scott had finally managed to catch.

"I'm actually not sure if it is a 'him'," Scott told him. "But either way it's name is Fluffball."

"Of course it is." Gil snorted but once he'd stopped petting Fluffball, he cleared his throat and looked back at Scott. "So...you didn't actually answer my..."

"Yes," Scott interrupted. "I left them for you."

"Right," Gil nodded. "It made no sense that Bailey could get on board to hide them anyway. Or read the crew info board. I'd just assumed that Peebee had helped him do it; she was so keen that I answer his email that I figured they had been working together."

"They weren't," Scott confirmed. "And she very much wants to punch him on the nose now that she knows that he lied to you both."

"She'll have to wait for it to get fixed first," Gil muttered and, at Scott's confused look, clarified. "I might have broken it earlier."

Scott blinked at him. "I'm sorry; did you just say that you broke Bailey's nose?"

"May have broken it," Gil said. "I’m not really sure; he ran off pretty quickly. When I got back to the table after you left, I quizzed him about the gifts and he finally had to admit that he had nothing to do with them. Things went a bit downhill from there and I ended up punching him when he said some rude things about you and the crew. Still...not my worst date ever."

"You punched your date because he was mean about me?" Scott couldn't help the grin that spread over his face.

Gil began to smile too. "Yeah, well...you left me secret gifts."

"It's almost as though we like each other or something." Scott took a step towards the other man.

"Now you're just talking crazy." Gil smirked as he mirrored Scott and also stepped closer then he tilted his head in confusion when something caught his eye. "What's that?"

Scott followed Gil's line of sight to the sofa and groaned inwardly; he'd completely forgotten that he'd left his knitting sitting there.

"It's...my meditation," he admitted. "Lexi scared me into it and, well, I kind of like it. A lot actually."

Gil hummed thoughtfully and walked closer for a better look. "I knew a woman back in London who used to knit. This isn't bad. The pink lace is a bit feminine for you though."

Scott huffed in amusement and he felt inordinately pleased that Gil hadn’t laughed at it. "It's for Lexi."

"Ah!" Gil nodded. "So she'll stop terrifying you? That's a good..."

Gil trailed off and his eyebrows suddenly shot up to his hairline. "Wait! Did you make my hat and scarf?"

Scott nodded. "Yes."

Gil looked astonished. "No, but...you didn't buy them, you made them. For me."

"You were getting cold,” Scott pointed out.

Gil gaped at Scott for a moment and then marched across the room to drag him into a kiss. Scott froze for a moment but when his brain rebooted enough to tell him 'Gil', 'kiss' and 'good thing', he started to kiss back with fervour.

Gil moaned and Scott definitely needed to hear more of that sound. His hands slid down to Gil's hips so that he could spin them and push Gil up against the wall next to the desk. Scott then pressed in close to kiss Gil slow and deep and dirty until the other man was shuddering and making more of those delicious noises as he clutched the back of Scott’s shirt.

“Fuck!” Gil groaned when Scott pulled back enough to lick and nip his way down his neck. “Scott...”

Scott stopped his attentions long enough to shoot the other man a wicked grin. “Actually, I was sort of hoping for the other way around.”

Gil’s eyes darkened at that and his voice dropped to that low, rough tone that Scott loved to hear. “Is that right? I’m sure that we can do something about that.”

Scott chuckled softly. “That’s what I like about you, Gil; you’re practical.”

“Hands on, you might say.” Gil’s eyes glinted with mischief as he slipped those hands into Scott’s back pockets and cupped his ass.

Scott’s laughter turned into a gasp when Gil leaned forward and nuzzled against his throat, his lips unerringly finding that one spot beneath Scott’s ear which made him shiver. Gil took advantage of Scott’s distraction to push away from the wall and walk them towards the bed.

“I think it’s about time that we made ourselves more comfortable, don’t you think?” Gil murmured into Scott’s ear before sucking the lobe into his mouth and biting lightly.

That voice in that accent just did things to Scott; a part of him thought that all Gil had to do was talk him to completion in bed, no touch needed. Of course that was just a small part which was mostly drowned by the rest of Scott silently screaming for Gil to get his hands on Scott’s bare skin and vice versa. Finding no reason to argue against that particular thought, Scott started to unbutton Gil’s yellow and green flamingo adorned shirt, revealing a gorgeous muscular chest that Scott decided was a definite shame to keep hidden under those overalls.

Reaching the bed, Gil pushed Scott so that he landed on the mattress with a small bounce and then followed him; climbing onto the bed and straddling Scott’s thighs.

“Just look at you,” Gil muttered, almost to himself, as he raked his eyes over Scott. “I never let myself believe that this would actually happen.”

He dragged his thumb over Scott’s kiss swollen lips and Scott couldn’t stop himself from sucking that thumb into his mouth with a small moan.

Gil’s breath hitched at the action and his eyes darkened even more, if possible. “We’ll save that for next time, darlin’. But I believe you mentioned a different plan for tonight.”

Scott’s hips bucked a little at, not only the thought of that plan, but the certainty in the other man’s voice that there would be a next time. He let Gil’s thumb drop from his mouth with a quiet ‘pop’.

“The supplies are in the top drawer,” he said, hoarsely, nodding towards the bedside cabinet.

Gil climbed off the bed to investigate and Scott took the opportunity to strip out of his clothes and lay back against the pillows.

“Eager,” commented Gil with an appreciative look.

“Did I somehow give you the impression that I didn’t want you on me as soon as possible?” Scott replied with a smirk. “Now get naked and get back here.”

“And bossy!” Gill laughed and complied with Scott’s order, throwing the lube onto the bed before removing his clothes.

Once he was entirely naked, he crawled up Scott’s body, kissing and licking as he went in a random pattern that Scott couldn’t predict and which left trails of fire on his skin.

“Gil...” Scott breathed and then let out a low moan when Gil’s response was to flick his tongue roughly against Scott’s nipple. “Please, Gil.”

“So fucking beautiful when you beg me like that,” Gil told him in a growl before crushing their lips together in a kiss full of passion and steadily rising excitement.

Scott dimly registered the snick of the lube bottle opening but didn’t appreciate Gil’s talent for multitasking until he felt the exquisite burn of Gil’s slicked finger. Scott threw his head back and panted and Gil immediately attacked that vulnerable area of his neck, worrying a bruise into the skin and murmuring soothing nonsense against his skin.

Slowly, one finger became two became three until Scott finally grabbed Gil’s head between his hands and kissed him roughly before declaring, “I’m ready, Gil. Please. I need you now. Please.”

Gil closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment, as if struggling with his control, and Scott remembered his earlier reaction to Scott’s begging too; he filed that information away for another time but he had more important issues on his mind right then. Gil exhaled loudly and then gave a shaky nod. The fingers disappeared and Scott gave a whimper of dissatisfaction before he could stop himself.

Gil let out a huff at that; strained but with some amusement too. “Seriously, the things you do to me, Scott Ryder. If you keep it up, this will be over before either of us wants.”

“Gil...” Scott whined and Gil hushed him.

“I know; it’s okay, darlin’. I’ve got you.”

With that Scott could feel Gil steadily pushing into him and let out a sob of relief. His hands scrabbled to grab hold of the headboard but Gil stopped him and entwined their fingers instead, grounding Scott as he adjusted to the fullness inside him and the burn began to subside.

“Okay, I’m good,” he gasped after a few moments, wrapping his legs around Gil’s waist. “You can move. Come on, Gil.”

Gil groaned and then did as Scott asked; moving slowly at first and changing his angle until he hit that spot inside Scott that made him cry out and see stars.

“Oh, fuck! Gil!”

Gil chuckled breathlessly and proceeded to pick up speed, hitting that spot as often as he could until Scott’s back bowed off the bed, his mouth open in a silent cry as he went tumbling over the edge. He heard Gil groan his name as he followed soon after and then he collapsed on top of Scott.

It took a little while before Scott could actually get his brain back online enough to make his limbs work but when he did, he wrapped his arms around Gil and pressed a kiss to his sweaty temple.

“Remind me...why we haven’t...done this before?” He panted against Gil’s hair.

“Because we’re idiots?” Gil replied, his chest heaving.

Scott grinned and dropped his head back onto the pillow to enjoy the afterglow. Eventually Gill stirred, causing Scott to wince a little as he withdrew and then rolled over to lay next to him. Scott immediately pulled him closer and Gil settled with his head on Scott’s shoulder.

“So...” Scott began. “You really like it when I beg, huh?”

Gil snorted. “You’ve no idea. I’ve wanted you for so long but forced myself to give up on the idea because, you know, you’re the Pathfinder. And you’re funny and attractive and way out of my league...”

“Now, you’re talking crazy,” Scott interjected but Gil ignored him.

“...So to have you stretched out beneath me, all gorgeous with your miles of golden skin, begging me...begging me...it was definitely pushing some buttons, Ryder.”

Scott raised his eyebrows. “We’re back to Ryder so soon? I was enjoying ‘darlin’’.”

Gil lifted his head to study Scott. “I wasn’t sure if...I mean, in the heat of the moment is one thing but outside of the awesome sex, ‘darlin’’ implies...something more.”

“I’m very good with that,” Scott told him before suddenly getting an attack of nerves because Gil could have meant that he didn’t want that. “I mean...if you want it to be more. If you don’t then that’s cool too and...”

Gil pressed a kiss to his mouth to stop him from babbling. “I definitely want more.”

Scott gave a relieved smile. “Okay, good.”

“After all, more will get me lots of knitted stuff, right?” Gil smirked and Scott burst out laughing.

“You only want me for my yarn goods! I feel so used.” He clutched a hand to his chest dramatically and Gil snickered. “Speaking of which...is that another kink? Because you got a bit forceful when you found out that I knit you that stuff. Not that I’m complaining because I’m really not.”

Scott’s words were teasing but Gil’s smile faded a little and turned rueful. “It was more because you made them for me. I don’t think that I’ve ever had anyone spend time and effort on something just for me. It was a bit...overwhelming. In a good way; a really good way.”

Scott had already picked up enough to know that Gil hadn’t had the best childhood and now the hint of sadness in Gil’s voice made Scott resolve to knit him lots more things and just generally spoil him. He also had the stray thought that if Gil reacted so strongly to just the basic idea of Scott making him something, imagine the sex that would ensue when he found out just how much effort Scott had gone to to make him that hat.

He decided to save that story for another time and instead said, “Gloves or socks next?”

Gil beamed at him.

They both fell asleep like that, wrapped around each other, until Scott woke suddenly the next morning. Something disquieted him enough that he’d jolted fully awake without the need for coffee; a very rare event and usually because he was in some kind of danger. He held his breath and listened hard but there was no sound except Gil’s deep even breaths beside him. That’s when Scott realised that it was actually the absence of something that woke him; he was so used to the slight buzzing of SAM working in his mind as he slept that it just felt strange for him to be gone. SAM’s hour of recharging had been up a long time earlier and he’d obviously stayed offline in order to give Scott and Gil some privacy.

Scott considered getting up and moving somewhere that he could talk to SAM without disturbing Gil’s slumber, and tell him that he could come back online now. But then he looked at the man laying next to him and smirked to himself; maybe SAM could stay away a little longer.

With that thought in mind, Scott ducked under the covers and proceeded to wake Gil up with every trick he’d ever learned until Gil was writhing against the bed with his fingers twined in Scott’s hair. Who needed caffeine when Scott could wake up like this every morning?

It wasn’t until Scott and Gil were grabbing a quick shower that Scott told SAM to come back online. He wasn’t sure what reaction he was expecting from the AI but the understated “Congratulations, Scott” made him smile.

Later that morning, the two men were laughing together in the kitchen when Liam and Peebee staggered in, each looking the worse for wear; apparently their drinking had continued well into the night. Scott poured them each a coffee and smirked at the suspicious looks they both kept shooting him, apparently confused as to why he was the one awake and alert while they needed a caffeine fix. Scott watched as Liam studied him carefully over the rim of his mug and so could see the moment he spotted the bruise on Scott’s neck. Liam’s gaze then moved to Gil and the way he was perched on the counter at perfect kissing height and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

It was about the same moment that Peebee gasped and clearly remembered her and Scott’s conversation from the night before. Her mouth opened but Scott had no idea what she was going to say because Liam grabbed her around the waist and pulled her towards the door.

“Time to go,” he said and she shook her head.

“No! I need to talk to Ryder!”

“You can talk to him later,” Liam insisted.

“Why can’t I talk to him?” She gasped again. “Has something happened? Do you know something? You do, don’t you? What’s going on?”

She kept shooting questions at Liam, having clearly missed the clues that Liam had noticed during their short visit to the kitchen and Gil snickered in amusement.

 “You do know that she’s going to be a nightmare for the next couple of weeks?” Gil pointed out. “She’s going to take credit for getting us together and claim it was her masterplan to set me up with Bailey in order to make you jealous enough to do something about it.”

“Probably,” Scott agreed. “I’ll have to try and find her some remnant tech to distract her.”

“Where are the Kett when you need them?” Gil quipped and then chuckled at the face Scott pulled.

“Don’t even joke abo…”

Scott’s admonishment got cut off when Gil drew him into a kiss, proving that Scott was even easier to distract than Peebee, given the right circumstances.

There was the sound of a throat being cleared behind them and Scott reluctantly pulled away from Gil to see that, instead of leaving them in peace, Liam and Peebee had actually rounded up the rest of the crew who were all staring at them with varying expressions of surprise or amusement.

“Umm…” Gil began but seemingly didn’t know how to continue.

Scott tried to pretend nonchalance and that he wasn’t blushing furiously as he looked back at his crew.

“I guess this is as good a time as any for the team meeting on new crew interpersonal relationships.” He reached over and took hold of Gil’s hand. “So…uh…yeah; Gil and I are a couple. If anyone has an issue with that then let me know and we can have a chat about your objections. Or, I guess, you can take it up with Addison.”

Cora’s loud snort let everyone know what she thought about that option. “What Addison understands about romance could fill a thimble. As long as you’re happy, Pathfinder, I’m happy. The same goes for you, Brodie.”

Scott was strangely touched by that. Out of everyone onboard, he’d expected Cora to be the one to be unhappy about a crew relationship; she was such a stickler for the old Alliance rules normally. But Scott guessed that the fallout from the Sarissa incident had caused Cora to stop blindly following people or rules.

Gil’s low laugh drew his attention and when Scott raised an enquiring eyebrow at him, he nodded towards Suvi and Lexi who were receiving a handful of credits from Vetra and Drax respectively.

“You were betting on us?” Scott asked incredulously. “How did you know? I didn’t know!”

“Clearly we didn’t know either,” Vetra pointed out with a nudge at Drax’s arm.

Suvi just grinned at them both. “You stare at each other when the other one isn’t looking. It was just a matter of time before you figured it out.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” Peebee pouted at her and shot a glare at Lexi and Liam, clearly very annoyed that she hadn’t been the first to know about Scott and Gil.

Suvi pulled her into a half hug of consolation and promised to share her winnings.

Lexi, as usual, ignored Peebee’s antics and sent a smug smile at Scott. “You spent months making Gil those gifts. You even went to Havaarl to get Jaal’s mother to help you with the hat. Of course I knew how you felt about him.”

Jaal nodded next to her. “Hapep will be most pleased to learn of the outcome to her teachings. Although I would prepare yourselves for an invitation to visit her as she will insist on meeting Gil Brodie.”

“You sneaky bastard! You told her that Gil was my consort on purpose!” Scott exclaimed, pointing at Jaal who chuckled in acknowledgement and looked very pleased with himself; he’d clearly spent way too much time with certain members of this crew.

Scott was about to point out this fact when Gil placed his hand on Scott’s face.

“You went to Jaal’s mum for help? You really went to that much trouble to make me a hat?” Gil’s eyes suddenly looked heated at that particular titbit of information and Scott opened his mouth to make some sort of excuse to drag Gil back to his bedroom but then Liam asked,

“What do they mean, you made the gifts, Ryder?”

Cora frowned and tilted her head. “Aren’t they knitted?”

Scott groaned and dropped his head to Gil’s shoulder.

***

“We’ve arrived in orbit of Voeld,” Suvi’s voice came over the Tempest speakers. “We’ll be landing in seven minutes.”

Scott checked all his weaponry was in place and walked to the cargo bay. A familiar purple pom-pom was poking out from under the Nomad and Scott smiled at the fact that Gil was already preparing to ward off the cold that would get into the ship when the doors opened to let Scott and his team leave.  Liam climbed down from the gangway, still buckling his suit, and not long after that Vetra appeared from the stock room. She waited until she reached the group and then made a big show of wrapping her chunky scarf around her neck. Turians clearly didn’t need things like scarves or hats any more than Krogans did but the fact that she wore one anyway, even the fact that Scott had made her a scarf in the first place, was done with the sole intention of annoying Liam.

“Really? Liam said, catching sight of the yellow scarf around her neck. “We’re still doing this?”

“Don’t hate on me just because you can’t have one of your own,” she replied and Scott supressed a smile.

Liam huffed. “I don’t see why I’m being punished. Peebee’s the one that came up with the nickname.”

“And you’re the one who called Scott ‘Scarf-finder’ in front of the Nexus chiefs,” Gil pointed out as he climbed out from under the Nomad.

The incident in question had happened at the official Initative celebration after the death of the Archon and the activation of Meridian. There had been many unofficial parties which Scott and his crew had been expected to attend and every one of them had been ten times more enjoyable than the official party; even the party on New Tuchanka where Scott momentarily but genuinely feared for their lives while they watched a commemorative battle in the pit. What the official party had going for it was better quality booze, something that Liam, Peebee and Kallo had definitely taken advantage of, leading to Liam making fun of Scott and his knitting in front of Tann, Addison and Kesh. Which, in turn, had led to Scott refusing to knit anything for Liam. Ever.

To be fair, Scott thought that ‘Scarf-finder’ was a really funny nickname; that’s why Peebee now had a snazzy pair of elbow length red gloves. It was the ‘old granny with his balls of yarn’ comments Liam had made after that which really put him in the doghouse. The memory of Jarun Tann snickering at Scott still pissed him off. 

“Sara, tell your brother that I’ve suffered enough. Voeld is really bloody cold and we keep coming back here!” Liam protested.

Sara laughed as she joined the rest of them, pulling on her own knitted gloves. “You make your bed, you lie in it, Kosta.”

“Pretty sure you lie in it often enough,” Liam muttered and then quailed a little under Scott’s glare before he stepped behind Vetra as if that would award him some protection.

Scott knew that Sara had something going with Liam and Peebee but he didn’t need to hear about it. He was already trying to forget that he’d ever heard Peebee murmer the words ‘zero-g’ to Sara in a come hither voice over the dinner table one evening. It was almost enough to make him wish that his earlier prediction that Sara and Peebee wouldn’t get along had come true.

“Yeah, that’s going to help your case, lover boy,” Sara told Liam with another laugh and then poked her tongue out at him as she put on her hat.

It was a little bit of a struggle for Scott to stop himself smiling at her antics. There had a been a while there when he worried that she wouldn’t wake up the same Sara that she’d been before they went into cryo, so it was great to see her back to her old self. That meant that he couldn’t really hold a grudge against Liam for taking an interest in her and making her happy. But he was enjoying making Liam squirm so he’d keep his revenge up a little while longer.

Sara gave him a look that told him that she knew exactly what Scott was doing but she’d always been amused when Scott tried to be the scary, overprotective brother so she kept quiet and shot him a tiny wink.

A tug on Scott’s own scarf dragged his attention away from scaring Liam to Gil who had snuck up beside him.

“Be careful out there,” Gil said.

As well as Sara needing to pick up some samples for her and Suvi’s research; they’d had reports that there were some rogue Kett hidden in one of the mountains of Voeld. The Kett had become increasingly desperate, unpredictable and dangerous since the Archon’s defeat which made going up against them trickier.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come back safe,” Scott assured his boyfriend.

Gil smirked. “Actually I meant be careful with Naomi.”

Scott snorted. “Of course you did. I’ll try not to drive your baby off another cliff but I can’t promise anything.”

With another tug on Scott’s scarf, Gill dragged him into a kiss.

“Bring yourself back in one piece too, darlin’; I have plans for you later,” he murmured against Scott’s lips, quiet enough that only Scott could hear him but Scott was pretty sure everyone got the gist of it when he blushed bright red.

There was the usual bump of the Tempest landing before the cargo bay door began to open. Scott pulled Gil into another quick kiss before the entire, colourful, group, minus Gil, climbed into the Nomad.

“Alright, gang. Let’s see what Andromeda’s got in store for us today.”

The End